Novel Treatment for Pancreatic Cancer Under Study Experimental
therapy destroys tumor 'scaffolding,' researchers say THURSDAY,
March 24 (HealthDay News) -- Researchers appear to have found a
new way to significantly shrink pancreatic tumors by targeting
the tissue surrounding cancer rather than the cancer itself. The
approach relies on an experimental antibody that sparks the
patient's own immune system into shredding the structural
"scaffolding" that holds tumors together. Although testing has
so far been confined to laboratory mice and a small group of
patients who have since relapsed, preliminary results caught the
researchers by surprise. "Until this research, we thought the
immune system needed to attack the cancer directly in order to
be effective," senior author Dr. Robert H. Vonderheide, an
associate professor of medicine in the division of
hematology/oncology at the University of Pennsylvania's Abramson
Cancer Center, noted in a university news release. "Now we know
that isn't necessarily so," he sai