Pancreatic Cancer

An inter-departmental group of researchers at the Rogel Cancer Center received a grant from the National Cancer Institute to further research on radiosensitization, the process of making tumors more vulnerable to radiation treatment.

In a study involving 30 pancreata from donors with no known gastrointestinal disease, researchers found precancerous lesions called pancreatic intraepithelial neoplasia in the majority of the organs. They also discovered that the lesions bore a similar gene expression signature to that of pancreatic cancer. These findings upend conventional wisdom that all PanIN are necessarily precursors to pancreatic cancer; given that the incidence of pancreatic cancer is relatively low, it’s not likely that all (or any) of the lesions are indicators of future cancer.

Rogel Cancer Center researcher Kyoung Eun Lee, Ph.D., assistant professor of pharmacology at Michigan Medicine, has received a new $1.4 million grant from the National Cancer Institute to study the stroma and in particular how low oxygen conditions, or hypoxia, in pancreatic cancer alters the tumor-stroma interaction – and how to capitalize on that to target potential new treatments.

Researchers at the University of Michigan Rogel Cancer have received a $2 million grant from the National Cancer Institute to understand the role myeloid cells play in how pancreatic cancer develops and progresses.

Within a pancreatic cancer tumor, different cell types interact to facilitate the tumor’s growth. Researchers see disrupting this metabolic crosstalk as a compelling target for treatment.

A study published in Nature Communications, led by Imad Shureiqi, M.D., shows that, pre-cancerous pancreatic lesions in mice, similar to those found in humans, contain higher levels of the transcriptional receptor peroxisome proliferator activated receptor-delta (PPARδ).

Hyaluronic acid, or HA, is a known presence in pancreatic tumors, but a new study from researchers at Rogel Cancer Center shows that hyaluronic acid also acts as food to the cancer cells. These findings, recently published in eLife, provide insight into how pancreatic cancer cells grow and indicate new possibilities to treat them.

A new study led by the University of Michigan Rogel Cancer Center demonstrates how inhibiting a key enzyme known as GOT1 can flip a switch in the cancer cells — causing them to shift from using nutrients to fuel growth toward conserving them to maintain energy levels.