Pancreatic cancer is one of the hardest cancers to treat. The most common type, called pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC), often grows silently without causing obvious symptoms.
By the time many people are diagnosed, the disease has already spread or become difficult to remove with surgery. Because of this, pancreatic cancer is one of the leading causes of cancer deaths, and only a small number of patients are still alive five years after diagnosis.
A team of doctors and engineers at the University of Illinois Chicago is exploring a new way to improve treatment.
Instead of developing a completely new medicine, they are investigating whether lidocaine, a pain-relieving drug that has been safely used for more than 65 years, could help stop pancreatic cancer from spreading. Their findings were published in the journal Lab on a Chip.
The researchers focused on what happens during and after surgery. Surgery offers the best chance of treating pancreatic cancer when the tumour can be removed. However, doctors know that some cancer cells may break away from the tumour during the operation and enter the bloodstream.
These escaped cells are known as circulating tumour cells, or CTCs. Once they are travelling through the blood, they may settle in other parts of the body and grow into new tumours. Patients with larger numbers of these cells often have a greater chance that their cancer will return after surgery.
There is usually a recovery period after an operation before chemotherapy can begin. During this time, the circulating tumour cells may continue moving through the body. Earlier laboratory research suggested that lidocaine may reduce the ability of these cancer cells to spread and may even help the immune system remove them before they can form new tumours.
Lead researcher Dr. Gina Votta-Velis believes this approach could lower the risk of cancer coming back. If lidocaine can make the cancer cells less active and less able to spread, it could become an important addition to current treatments. More studies are still needed to confirm whether this benefit occurs in patients.
Finding these rare cancer cells is another major challenge. A blood sample can contain billions of normal blood cells but only a few dozen circulating tumour cells. Detecting them quickly and accurately is extremely difficult.
To solve this problem, Dr. Votta-Velis worked with engineer Dr. Ian Papautsky to develop a small device made from glass and plastic. About the size of a finger, it contains tiny channels that separate cancer cells from normal blood cells based on their size.
Because cancer cells are generally larger and softer, the device can capture them without causing significant damage. This type of test is known as a liquid biopsy.
The researchers compared their new device with another commonly used method called EasySep, which relies on magnets to isolate cancer cells.
When they tested blood samples from people with pancreatic cancer, the new device detected about eight times more cancer cells and completed the job much faster, sometimes in only 20 minutes. Earlier testing also showed the device could identify cancer cells with about 93% accuracy.
The team believes this technology could eventually help doctors diagnose pancreatic cancer earlier, monitor patients after surgery and better understand how cancer spreads. Because many different cancers travel through the bloodstream, the technology may also prove useful beyond pancreatic cancer.
Although more research and clinical testing are needed, this study offers fresh hope that a familiar medicine and an innovative blood test could improve treatment for one of the world’s deadliest cancers.
If you care about cancer, please read studies that artificial sweeteners are linked to higher cancer risk, and how drinking milk affects risks of heart disease and cancer.
For more health information, please see recent studies about the best time to take vitamins to prevent heart disease, and results showing vitamin D supplements strongly reduces cancer death.
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