Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is a deadly type of pancreatic cancer. It’s aggressive, meaning it grows fast and spreads quickly.
Unfortunately, there are few effective treatments, and survival rates are low. Only about 8% of people diagnosed with this cancer live more than five years.
Despite these grim statistics, scientists are constantly searching for better ways to treat PDAC. Recently, a team of researchers from the Francis Crick Institute made a breakthrough. Their findings, led by researcher Axel Behrens, offer hope for a new approach to fighting this deadly cancer.
Their work focuses on a specific type of cell found in tumors called cancer stem cells. These cells are similar to the stem cells in our body that help repair tissues.
But cancer stem cells are dangerous because they can start new tumors and grow into different types of cancer cells. Understanding how these cells work is important because it could lead to new treatments.
The team discovered something interesting when studying the genes in these cancer stem cells: a protein called CD9.
This protein appears on the surface of cancer stem cells whether the tumor is in the early stages or has been growing for a while. That’s a useful discovery because it could help doctors identify cancer stem cells more easily.
But CD9 isn’t just a marker that shows where these cells are. It also plays a role in helping cancer stem cells grow and spread. To better understand this, the researchers did experiments on mice with cancer. They altered the amount of CD9 in the mice’s tumor cells.
When they reduced the levels of CD9, the tumors were smaller and less aggressive. On the other hand, when they increased the amount of CD9, the cancer cells became more aggressive, and larger tumors grew quickly.
This discovery also linked back to real-life data from cancer patients. The researchers looked at information from people with pancreatic cancer and found that those with higher levels of CD9 in their tumors tended to have worse outcomes.
About 10% of patients with this type of cancer have high levels of CD9, and their cancer is typically harder to treat.
The next question for the scientists was: how exactly does CD9 help cancer grow? To find out, they studied how cancer stem cells use nutrients to grow. They discovered that CD9 helps cancer cells take in more of a nutrient called glutamine.
This nutrient acts like fuel, giving energy to the cancer cells and helping them grow faster. By increasing the amount of glutamine cancer cells can absorb, CD9 plays a crucial role in making the tumor grow.
This new understanding of CD9 offers a fresh target for cancer treatments. If scientists can develop therapies that reduce or block CD9, they could potentially slow down or stop the growth of pancreatic tumors.
One idea is to create drugs that prevent cancer cells from getting the glutamine they need, essentially starving the cancer.
Although there’s still a long way to go, these findings are a promising step forward. Scientists now have a clearer picture of how pancreatic cancer grows, and they have a new target for developing treatments.
With further research and testing, these discoveries could lead to therapies that improve survival rates and give hope to patients battling this aggressive cancer.
In the fight against pancreatic cancer, every new clue counts. This discovery about CD9 could help scientists develop treatments that change the way we approach this deadly disease.
If you care about cancer, please read studies about vitamin D and bowel cancer, and a cautionary note about peanuts and cancer.
For more health information, please see recent studies about the link between ultra-processed foods and cancer, and everyday foods to ward off pancreatic cancer.
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