A. Rahman
A team of Spanish researchers has announced a significant advance in the fight against pancreatic cancer, demonstrating the complete elimination of the disease in laboratory mice using a novel combination therapy. While experts caution that this discovery is not yet a proven cure for humans, it represents a promising step toward future treatments and potential clinical trials.
The research was led by Dr. Mariano Barbacid at the Spanish National Cancer Research Centre (CNIO) in Madrid. Over the course of six years, the team developed a triple-drug approach designed to target pancreatic tumors from multiple biological angles simultaneously. Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC), the most common form of pancreatic cancer, has historically been resistant to treatment and carries one of the lowest survival rates among cancers.
In the study, the experimental treatment combined a KRAS inhibitor, afatinib (which blocks EGFR and HER2 pathways), and SD36 (which degrades STAT3, a molecule crucial for tumor survival). The therapy completely eradicated tumors in three different mouse models, with no signs of recurrence after treatment ended. The mice tolerated the drugs well, showing minimal side effects.
Although these results are a breakthrough in preclinical research, Dr. Barbacid emphasized that the therapy still needs to be tested and optimized for human patients. If successfully adapted for clinical use, this approach could offer a new and more effective treatment option for patients with pancreatic cancer, a disease responsible for tens of thousands of deaths worldwide each year.
Experts say the findings represent one of the most promising advances in PDAC research in recent years, offering hope that a strategy targeting multiple tumor pathways simultaneously could overcome the cancer’s aggressive nature and improve patient outcomes.
