Odds of surviving pancreatic cancer narrow with new regime

Survival rates for pancreatic cancer could be significantly improved by a pioneering treatment developed by scientists at the University of Ulster.

Researchers say the therapy leads to a fivefold reduction in tumour sizes, thereby opening up more treatment options, even for advanced forms of the disease.

The treatment, which combines existing techniques in a novel way, involves injecting tumours with tiny oxygen-filled bubbles coated with an inactive drug. Ultrasound is used to activate the drug and release the oxygen, which makes the drug work more effectively on tumours.

Conventional cancer treatments such as radiotherapy and some chemotherapies are often limited by poor oxygen supply in solid tumours.

"When our microbubbles burst, they provide a temporary boost in the amount of oxygen available in the tumour, enhancing the effectiveness of techniques that require oxygen to work," according to Prof John Callan of the University of Ulster.

Therapy

Patients with pancreatic cancer tend to present late because the disease has few early symptoms. By then, the tumour tends to be large and well established, making surgical intervention largely unsuccessful.

By reducing the size of the tumour, the therapy may make surgery an option for more patients, as well as increasing palliative care options.

The survival rate for pancreatic cancer is one of the lowest of all forms of the disease, at 4 per cent, a figure that hasn’t changed in 40 years.

Globally, more than 200,000 cases are diagnosed annually; in Ireland, former among those who have died from the disease in recent years.