Pancreatic cancer is one of the deadliest cancers. The most common type, called pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC), spreads very fast and is hard to treat.
Right now, there are no good treatment options, and only about 8 out of 100 people with this cancer live more than five years after being diagnosed.
But scientists at the Francis Crick Institute may have found a new way to fight this cancer. Their recent study, published in Nature Cell Biology, looked at a special kind of cancer cell that plays a big role in how tumors grow.
These cells are called cancer stem cells. They are different from regular cancer cells because they act like stem cells in the body. Stem cells help the body repair itself and grow new tissues. Cancer stem cells can start new tumors and turn into different types of cancer cells.
This makes them very dangerous. If doctors can find a way to target these cells, it could lead to better treatments.
The research team, led by Axel Behrens, found a protein called CD9 on the surface of these cancer stem cells. This protein shows up in both early and late stages of tumors. That means it could help doctors find these harmful cells early.
CD9 doesn’t just help find cancer stem cells—it also makes the cancer grow faster. When researchers lowered the amount of CD9 in cancer cells in mice, the tumors that grew were much smaller. When they raised the amount of CD9, the cancer cells grew faster and made bigger tumors.
The team also looked at data from cancer patients. They found that people whose tumor cells had high levels of CD9 were less likely to survive. About 1 in 10 people with this type of cancer had very high CD9 levels. This shows that CD9 could make the cancer more serious.
The scientists wanted to understand how CD9 makes cancer worse. They found that CD9 helps cancer stem cells take in more glutamine, which is a nutrient the cells need to grow. With more glutamine, the cancer cells grow faster and become harder to treat.
This discovery is important because it gives scientists a new way to treat pancreatic cancer. If doctors can make drugs that block CD9 or stop cancer stem cells from using glutamine, they might be able to slow or stop the cancer. Cutting off the cancer’s fuel could make it weaker and easier to fight.
While more research is needed, this study gives hope. If these findings lead to new treatments, it could improve survival rates and give patients with pancreatic cancer a better chance.
If you care about cancer, please read studies about a new method to treat cancer effectively, and this low-dose, four-drug combo may block cancer spread.
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