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Posted on Oct 09, 2006, 8 a.m.
By Bill Freeman
Pancreatic cancer ranks as the fourth leading cause of death from cancer, and it affects more than 30,000 Americans each year. "The only known cure is surgical recession of the cancer," Daniel Laheru, M.D., from the Kimmel Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins in Baltimore, tells Ivanhoe. The setback, he explains, is that only 15 to 20 of every 100 patients can have the surgery because this type of cancer is often not detected early enough.
The symptoms of pancreatic cancer include abdominal pain, loss of appetite, weight loss, jaundice and digestive problems, yet these warnings are usually not noticed or felt until the cancer is very advanced. Survival rates, especially in the long-term, are grim. Although variance is seen from study to study, most produce survival rates of about 63 percent one year following diagnosis and 42 percent two years afterward. Dr. Laheru says, "These cancers are very clever and able to grow inside your body and essentially evade normal surveillance mechanisms."
METHODS OF TREATMENT: Despite the grim prognosis that typically shadows pancreatic cancer, treatment methods are available. Various types of surgery, depending on the stage and form of the cancer, can be used to attempt removal. Some of the potential surgeries include the Whipple procedure (surgeon removes the head of the pancreas and a portion of the small intestine, stomach, and bile duct -- also called a pancreaticoduodenectomy), distal procedure (surgeon removes the body and tail of the pancreas as well as the spleen), and the total pancreatectomy (surgeon removes the whole pancreas, as well as part of the stomach, some of the small intestine, the common bile duct, the gallbladder, the spleen, and close lymph nodes). Radiation and chemotherapy are other forms of treatment. All of these options may be used alone or in differing combinations. A final source of treatment lies in new studies and trials, which may or may not be successful. Researchers at Johns Hopkins are working on a vaccine for pancreatic cancer, and they may be on to something.
BREAKING NEW GROUND: The study to create a new solution to pancreatic cancer is headed by Dr. Laheru and has been in progress for about two years. The researchers are using surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation, but are supplementing it with a new vaccine. The vaccine uses cancer cells that are stunted in growth that emit a certain molecule called GM-CSF. This molecule attracts cells that still have immunity to the tumor and causes them to come in contact with antigens from cells that have been exposed to radiation. These same cells then travel around the body and annihilate other cancerous cells.
Patients receive the vaccination eight to 10 weeks after surgery and again after chemotherapy and radiation in a series of four booster shots. Two years into the study, the statistical results are optimistic. Of the 60 patients in the study, survival rates are reported to be 88 percent after one year and 76 percent after two years. Elizabeth Jaffee, M.D., says it will be important to follow the progress of the patients involved. She adds, "We are hopeful these early results will hold true."
