Pancreatic cancer

Main article: Cancer (cancer)

2024: First time man had pancreas removed with robot

In early September 2024, Israeli specialists from the Galilee Medical Center in Naharia announced the first operation to completely remove the pancreas using a robotic system. The use of the robot provides a number of advantages over traditional surgery, including improving accuracy, reducing the risk of complications and speeding up the rehabilitation process of patients.

Pancreatic surgery is highly complicated due to the peculiarities of the structure and functioning, close anatomical connections with other organs of the hepatobiliary system and the spleen. Pancreatic cancer often develops against the background of chronic pancreatitis, sometimes it is preceded by other operations on the abdominal organs. As a result, the surgeon faces additional difficulties.

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Timesofisrael.com

The patient of the Galilee Medical Center was a 78-year-old man who had multiple cystic tumors of the pancreas. Although this type of formation is not considered cancerous, in the absence of treatment in the future, such tumors can develop into malignant ones. The surgery involved removal of all parts of the duodenum, guts spleen, part, stomach extrahepatic bile ducts and gallbladder, followed by reconstruction of the digestive system.

The procedure lasted about seven hours and is said to have been successful. After several days of hospitalization in the surgical department, the patient was discharged home in good condition.

Using the robot allows performing operations without opening the abdominal cavity. The system expands the capabilities of the surgeon, allowing him to achieve maximum accuracy, reduce the number of complications and speed up the patient's recovery, says Dr. Eli Kakiashvili, who led the operation.[1]

2023: Implant developed to reduce pancreatic tumor

In mid-April 2023, Houston Methodist Nanomedicine Institute researchers found a way to defeat pancreatic cancer by delivering immunotherapy directly to the tumor using a device called NDES to shrink the tumor, which is smaller than a rice grain. The authors hope that their device will make it easier and more effective to treat cancer. Read more here.

2022

Established treating therapy that treats in 80% of cases

In mid-October 2022, engineers at Duke University developed a drug delivery system to treat cancer and demonstrated its potential against one of the most unpleasant forms of the disease. In a published study in mice with pancreatic cancer, scientists have shown how a radioactive implant can completely destroy tumors in most rodents, demonstrating what they say is the most effective treatment ever studied in these preclinical models.

Pancreatic cancer, as is known for October 2022, is difficult to diagnose and treat, as tumor cells of this type are very evasive and contain mutations that make them resistant to many drugs. It accounts for only 3.2% of all cancers, but is the third leading cause of cancer death. One way to combat it is by applying chemotherapy to keep tumor cells in a state that leaves them vulnerable to radiation and then exposing the tumor to a directed beam of radiation.

New pancreatic cancer therapy created that treats 80% of cases

But doing so in a way that affects the tumor, but not exposing the patient to large doses of radiation, is a fine line that raises the risk of serious side effects. Another method scientists are investigating is the use of implants that can be placed directly inside a tumor to attack it with radioactive materials from within. They have had some success using titanium shells to enclose radioactive samples, but they can cause damage to surrounding tissues.

Study author Jeff Schaal spoke about his team investigating an alternative type of implant made from more biocompatible materials that would not put the human body at the same risk. The scientists used synthetic chains of amino acids known as elastin-like polypeptides (ELPs), which remain in a liquid state at room temperature but form a stable gel-like material in the body's warmer environment.

This substance was introduced into tumors of various mouse models of pancreatic cancer along with the radioactive element iodine-131 - an isotope that is well studied and widely used in medicine. In this environment, ELP captures iodine-131 and prevents it from leaking into the body, but allows it to emit beta radiation that penetrates the surrounding tumor. After the radiation is consumed, the ELP biogel safely breaks down into harmless amino acids.

The treatment was tested in combination with a common chemotherapy drug called paclitaxel, the researchers said. Radioactive implants were injected into cancer tumors located under the skin, but with mutations known in pancreatic cancer, as well as tumors in the pancreas itself that are historically more difficult to treat.

Scientists report that in all models tested, the response to treatment was 100%. In three-quarters of the models, double treatment completely eliminated tumors 80% of the time. The researchers applied the treatment method against pancreatic cancer because they wanted to study its potential against one of the most complex forms of the disease, but believe these findings portend its wider application.

Much remains to be seen before this happens, and the researchers' next step will be large animal testing. These findings are unparalleled in terms of how effectively the treatment has been able to destroy tumors, the scientists said, and team member Ashutosh Chilkoti describes them as perhaps the most exciting results against late-stage pancreatic cancer his lab has received since 2002.^[2]

Servier and Onkodizain launch project to find new ways to treat pancreatic cancer

pharmaceutical On October 5, 2022, the independent international company Servier announced that, together with the precision medicine the French biopharmaceutical company Oncodesign Precision Medicine (OPM) , it had launched scientific a collaboration to find therapeutic targets for the therapy of ductal adenocarcinoma of the pancreas. More. here

2021

Chronic pancreatitis is recognized as a major risk factor for pancreatic cancer

By October 2021, chronic pancreatitis can be considered a major risk factor for pancreatic cancer, as confirmed by numerous epidemiological and clinical studies. Read more here.

Urine analysis learned to detect pancreatic cancer at the earliest stage with 96% accuracy

In early October 2021, the University of Osaka presented a new urine test, which, according to the developers, determines pancreatic cancer at stage 0 and 1A with an accuracy of almost 96%.

To test the technology, several large medical centers in Japan and patients with early-stage pancreatic cancer were involved. Initially, they conducted an open-label study with 83 patients, and subsequent results showed significant differences after surgical removal at the 0-IA stages. Preoperative urine samples had a significantly higher chemotaxis index compared to postoperative ones in pancreatic cancer patients and healthy volunteers.

Results of testing that investigated healthy participants and PDAC patients

Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is among the deadliest diseases, with a five-year survival rate of no more than 9%. Symptoms of pancreatic cancer, such as pain and weight loss, are nonspecific, leading to a later diagnosis of the disease itself, by which time the disease progresses rapidly. By the time of diagnosis, 90% of patients have a locally advanced tumor, germinating retroperitoneal structures, spreading to regional lymph nodes, or metastasizing to the liver and lungs, said a doctor from Osaka Hideshi Ishii University.

Like sniffer dogs, the use of free-living soil nematodes takes place. This solution was presented as a new strategy for the detection of cancer-related, particularly distinctive odors during cancer screening. The sensitivity of this biological diagnosis was reported to be 95.8%, which was acceptable even for patients in the early stages of cancer. Moreover, according to reports, this test demonstrated high sensitivity in cases of gastrointestinal cancer and negative changes in the postoperative period.

Thus, this method may be useful for identifying patients with early-stage pancreatic cancer. However, no study has yet used this method to detect a very early stage of pancreatic cancer, mainly due to the extreme difficulty of collecting urine samples from such patients.

Hideshi Ishiya's research team concluded in their study that the current study observed increased chemotaxis of free-living soil nematodes in patients with very early PDAC stage, suggesting that it could be used as a standard method for detecting early-stage cancer. However, the mechanisms underlying this chemotaxis need to be refined for information to help elucidate the biological characteristics of cancer.^[3][4]

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