Pancreatic cancer: Trial drug MRK003 shows promise

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-17095753

Scientists say they may have found a new weapon against pancreatic cancer after promising early trial results of an experimental drug combination.
Giving the chemotherapy agent gemcitabine with an experimental drug called MRK003 sets off a chain of events that ultimately kills cancer cells, studies in mice show.
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The Cancer Research UK-funded [human] trials are being carried out in Cambridge.

May it work, for pancreatic cancer is a really bad cancer [not that there are any good ones]. But even if it works, it would probably mean some survival extension by a few months, maybe a year or so, not a magic bullet. The important thing is to preserve a level head and not to be carried away by excessive hopes or hype.

My godmother had pancreatic cancer. She tried a protein kinase inhibitor (inhibits the enzyme that puts phosphate groups on proteins) as an experimental treatment.The doctor told here right out that it wasn't a cure, but it might prolong her life. She lasted 2.5 years after being diagnosed.

A big reason that chemo stops working on various cancers is that it is a poison and there is a gene for pumping poisons out of cells. In a lot of cacncers, DNA gets amplified and when this pump gene gets amplified, the cell makes enough pumps that the poison (chemo) is removed as fast as it gets in the cell.

The real breakthroughs in treating cancer will come when we can manipulate the microenvironment around the tumor. This MRK003 drug (which I have never heard of before) targets an enzyme, gamma-secretase, which is used in a lot of cellular pathways.

The real breakthroughs in treating cancer will come when we can manipulate the microenvironment around the tumor. This MRK003 drug (which I have never heard of before) targets an enzyme, gamma-secretase, which is used in a lot of cellular pathways.

Oh, what do you know?

The real breakthroughs in treating cancer will come when we can manipulate the microenvironment around the tumor. This MRK003 drug (which I have never heard of before) targets an enzyme, gamma-secretase, which is used in a lot of cellular pathways.

Oh, what do you know?

Not much honestly. Cancer research is like the proverbial blind mice trying to describe the elephant.

The real breakthroughs in treating cancer will come when we can manipulate the microenvironment around the tumor. This MRK003 drug (which I have never heard of before) targets an enzyme, gamma-secretase, which is used in a lot of cellular pathways.

Oh, what do you know?

proverbial blind mice trying to describe the elephant.

That's a proverb I never heard...

The real breakthroughs in treating cancer will come when we can manipulate the microenvironment around the tumor. This MRK003 drug (which I have never heard of before) targets an enzyme, gamma-secretase, which is used in a lot of cellular pathways.

Oh, what do you know?

proverbial blind mice trying to describe the elephant.

That's a proverb I never heard...

Sorry, its blind men.

blind_men_eleph-1.gif

The field is so big and most people focus on just a tiny aspect of it.

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Sorry, its blind men.

blind_men_eleph-1.gif

The field is so big and most people focus on just a tiny aspect of it.

There is one pooped upon and exclaiming "it's sticky and it stinks!" missing from that picture.