Genomic sequencing offers new hope in pancreatic cancer treatment
People with pancreatic cancer — a disease that’s hard to detect and even harder to treat — will have new medical options thanks to genomic sequencing, Australian researchers announced on Friday.
The Australian Pancreatic Genome Initiative, assisted by researchers from the University of Western Australia, led an international program to understand the cancer better and increase the fiveyear survival rate, which now stands at just 5 percent.
Pancreatic cancer remains one of the most lethal of malignancies. Early diagnosis is unusual as symptoms are rarely specific to the disease. It kills 75 percent of patients within 12 months of diagnosis.
The research, published in the science journal Nature on Thursday, examined the variations in the genome present in 100 pancreatic adenocarcinomas, the type of tumors most frequently diagnosed.
This allowed the cancers to be further divided into four categories: stable, locally rearranged, scattered and unstable.
Several of the cancers were also found to have mutations amenable to treatment with drugs used for other cancers, though not at present for pancreatic cancer. In addition, two novel gene mutations were observed that may offer leads for new approaches to treatment.
Adjunct associate professor Nikolajs Zeps of the University of Western Australia said on Friday that the study was a good illustration of the power of biobanks linked to genomic sequencing.
Zeps also praised his collaborators in Sydney and Queensland.
The work of team leader Nicola Waddell and her colleagues “is particularly important because it has for the first time revealed clear markers that will be useful in selecting more appropriate therapies for patients with pancreatic cancer”, he said in a prepared statement.