4 New Ways to Treat Pancreatic Cancer

Introduction

Pancreatic cancer is one of the most difficult cancers to treat, with no standardised treatment protocol and limited options for successful clinical trials. Most patients only have six months to live after diagnosis and less than 5% survive five years or longer after diagnosis. However, there are new treatments available and Simons Group is working with researchers on these exciting developments:

Four weeks ago, I got the call from my doctor. I had pancreatic cancer. And I had, at most, six months to live.

In case you didn’t know, pancreatic cancer is a very serious condition. The prognosis is grim, and the treatment options are limited. And if you live in a developing nation or a remote part of the world where healthcare facilities are scarce, it may be even worse: your only option might be to wait patiently for death.

Because of this, many people who have pancreatic cancer don’t even have access to proper care—let alone advanced treatment options like immunotherapy and targeted radiation therapy (which we’ll get into later).

The news was a hammerblow to my family and friends. Not because I’m anyone special – at 51 years of age, in good health but overweight, and smoking a pack of cigarettes a day, many would call me an accident waiting to happen.

The news was a hammer blow to my family and friends. Not because I’m anyone special – at 51 years of age, in good health but overweight, and smoking a pack of cigarettes a day, many would call me an accident waiting to happen.

But they didn’t expect this one.

But no-one really expected it. Pancreatic cancer is not something that happens to someone like me.

But no-one really expected it. Pancreatic cancer is not something that happens to someone like me. It’s a disease of the elderly, or people who are overweight and smokers, or people who are unlucky — which means that cancers happen to other people; they don’t happen to you.

The utter shock of being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer when you’re young and healthy (even if “healthy” isn’t the word for it) hits you like a freight train in your mid-thirties — maybe even earlier. Once you process the initial shock and denial, then comes anger at what happened and why your body betrayed you in such an awful way. You’re angry at yourself too: why didn’t I check my belly fat? Why didn’t I make better choices when eating fast food? Why did I smoke back then when I knew it was killing me but just couldn’t stop?

But what do we really know about this disease? What causes pancreatic cancer? Who gets it? And how can we prevent ourselves from getting one of its cruel many faces?

It’s hard, if not impossible, for the non-specialist to stay on top of developments in cancer treatment. It’s one reason why I joined Simons Group as Medical Director 18 months ago.

It’s hard, if not impossible, for the non-specialist to stay on top of developments in cancer treatment. It’s one reason why I joined Simons Group as Medical Director 18 months ago.

Simons Group is a specialist cancer research organisation based in the UK and named after Samuel Simon, who died aged 10 from neuroblastoma – a rare childhood cancer. Founded by his parents Dr Jonny Saul and Dr Pauline Houlston, Simons Group aims to improve patient outcomes through better understanding of the disease; developing new treatments; and changing healthcare policy so that these new advances can be more widely implemented across society.

We run an international network of experts working together under one roof in Cambridge – from translational researchers identifying new targets for drugs development to oncologists testing those drugs in clinical trials with patients here at home or abroad – all under one roof at our state-of-the art facilities located at Clare Bridge House on Hills Road (next door to Addenbrooke’s Hospital).

In any event, I’ve been getting up to speed about my disease. And I wanted to share what I have learned with you – some inspiring work that Simons Group is supporting which can help people with pancreatic cancer get better outcomes from their treatment and potentially even reduce their risk of getting this disease in the first place.

Pancreatic cancer is a terrible disease. The prognosis for most people diagnosed with this disease is very poor, with one in every six people dying from it within the first year after being diagnosed.

In any event, I’ve been getting up to speed about my disease. And I wanted to share what I have learned with you – some inspiring work that Simons Group is supporting which can help people with pancreatic cancer get better outcomes from their treatment and potentially even reduce their risk of getting this disease in the first place.

There are several promising new treatments in the works for pancreatic cancer patients, including: a surgery called transarterial chemoembolization (TACE), which uses a catheter to deliver chemotherapy directly into tumours using microbubbles that target tumour blood vessels; immunotherapy drugs such as Keytruda®, Opdivo®, Yervoy® and Tecentriq®; and gene therapy approaches like adoptive cell therapy (ACT) and checkpoint inhibition therapies

There has been promising progress made on Pancreatic cancer treatments

In recent years, there has been promising progress made on Pancreatic cancer treatments. The Simons Group is funding research into new treatments for pancreatic cancer, which includes immunotherapy and personalised medicine. New treatments are being tested in clinical trials around Australia and the world.

Conclusion

The bottom line is this: there are now more options for people with pancreatic cancer than ever before. And as a doctor who wants to help his patients, I’m excited by the progress we’ve made in terms of treatments and even prevention.