Recently, UCLA researchers have developed a new drug combination to help treat pancreatic cancer.
The new drug combo may benefit people with this deadly disease and help them live longer.
Previous research has shown that pancreatic cancer occurs when cells in the pancreas begin to multiply out of control and form a mass. The pancreas is behind the stomach.
The tumor cells can invade other parts of the body quickly. Moreover, pancreatic cancer often becomes resistant to treatments which could treat other cancers.
Sadly, there is no effective therapy to deal with pancreatic cancer currently.
To help solve the problem, in the current study, the team tried to find out how the cancer cell pathways work.
They aimed to find potential new targets for pancreatic cancer therapies.
The researchers first took chloroquine and combined it with more than 500 different inhibitors to identify any interactions that could produce a cancer-fighting effect.
Chloroquine a medicine used to treat malaria.
They found a complementary inhibitor called replication stress response inhibitor. This finding helped them develop a drug combination.
In this drug combo, one drug can inhibit the process that allows cancer cells to survive, and the other drug can block the pathway can cancer use to repair DNA.
The team tested the drug combo on pancreatic cancer cells and mice and found the effect was promising.
The findings provide new evidence that chloroquine combined with an inhibitor could help reduce tumor growth in pancreatic cancer.
The researchers suggest that their results help improve the understanding of the underlying mechanism of pancreatic cancer. They may lead to new treatment strategies for the disease.
The team hopes the new drug combo can benefit patients and help improve the prognosis for people with the disease.
The study also shows that some existing drugs can help treat other diseases.
The study is published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
The research was conducted by a team from UCLA’s Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center.
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