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MOON SHOTS PROGRAM
The pancreas is a vital organ that makes insulin and other hormones, which aid in a number of processes important for good health. While it accounts for only 2% of cancers diagnosed in the United States each year, pancreatic cancer is the third most common cause of cancer-related deaths in the country. It often does not cause symptoms in the early stages, making it challenging to detect and diagnose.
The Pancreatic Cancer Moon Shot® is revolutionizing the conventional medical research approach to rapidly adapt pre-clinical findings into pancreatic cancer treatment options.
Anirban Maitra, M.B.B.S.
Professor, Pathology
Florencia McAllister, M.D.
Associate Professor, Department of Clinical Cancer Prevention
Robert A. Wolff, M.D.
Professor, Gastrointestinal Medical Oncology
Listen as Moon Shot co-leader Anirban Maitra, M.B.B.S., explains why we're unable to rely on traditional funding sources to support the innovative research projects that make our program unique.
For this reason, whether it comes in the form of advocating for our cause or making a financial donation, your help can improve outcomes for pancreatic cancer patients who face the current incurability of their disease.
For patients with pancreatic cancer, the benefits from immunotherapy treatments with immune checkpoint inhibitors or cell therapies have been limited so far. This is partly because pancreatic cancers create an environment that blocks an effective immune response. Also, these tumors have few neoantigens, or mutant proteins, which normally allow the immune system to recognize them as unhealthy cells.
Learn moreResearchers at MD Anderson have discovered that mutant KRAS and p53, the most frequently mutated genes in pancreatic cancer, interact through the CREB1 protein to promote metastasis and tumor growth. Blocking CREB1 in preclinical models reversed these effects and reduced metastases, suggesting an important new therapeutic target for the deadly cancer.
Drew Huggins still gets emotional when he recalls the day clinical trial coordinator Jing Yang phoned him with some good news that changed the course of his pancreatic cancer treatment.
Yang told Drew about a new experimental drug that was being tested at MD Anderson through a clinical trial. Unlike previous treatments that had failed to control the pancreatic cancer, this drug was designed to target the exact genetic mutation that caused his cancer to grow.
A key difference between the few pancreatic cancer patients who survive long-term and the many whose disease overcomes all treatments is the bacterial signatures on their tumors that either stimulate or suppress immune response, a team led by researchers from MD Anderson reports in the journal Cell. The researchers also showed that fecal microbiota transplants (FMT) from long-term survivors prompted immune response and stifled tumors in a mouse model of the disease by altering the bacteria on the tumor – its microbiome.
