Pancreatic Cancer: Discovery Offers Potential New Treatment

New research to be presented in November at the American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists (AAPS) Annual Meeting in Los Angeles reveals that tumor-penetrating microparticles (TPM) have been specifically designed to break through hard-to-infiltrate barriers and deliver drugs more effectively and efficiently than the standard form of chemotherapy such as those injected through a vein. TPM are designed to treat cancer in the peritoneal cavity. The peritoneal cavity contains organs, including the pancreas, that are home to more than 250,000 new cases of cancer a year in the United States alone. "Pancreatic cancer cells are surrounded by specialized cells that protect them from chemotherapy," explains Dr. Au. "Our goal is to use TPM to pass this barrier and successfully deliver drugs to the tumor cells, which is currently the biggest hurdle a physician faces in pancreatic cancer treatment."
With just one TPM dose of drugs proving to be equally as effective as multiple injections of chemotherapy, TPM delivers less toxicity to patients, making it a safer option than the standard form of other therapies. "Based on the encouraging results in mice carrying implants of human pancreatic cancer, we are cautiously optimistic that TPM may provide benefits to patients with this disease," says Ze Lu, Ph.D., principal scientist and project leader. "TPM may prove to be especially helpful to patients with late stages of the disease." According to Dr. Lu, the researchers have been working on TPM for more than 10 years and look forward to receiving FDA approval for testing TPM in patients in 2010.