Posted on 02/16/2023 7:30:21 PM PST by ConservativeMind
Pancreatic cancer is highly lethal, and surgical removal of tumor tissue is currently the only potential cure for most patients. Once the cancer has spread beyond the pancreas, treatment options are limited.
A recent phase II clinical trial identified a promising combination treatment regimen for patients with locally advanced pancreatic cancer, meaning that their cancer had spread, but only to nearby tissue. The trial's investigators have now uncovered the potential mechanisms behind the treatment's beneficial effects.
The combination therapy—losartan+FFX+CRT—includes the blood pressure drug losartan plus a chemotherapy cocktail called FOLFIRINOX (folinic acid, fluorouracil, irinotecan, and oxaliplatin), followed by chemoradiation. The therapy is meant to combat as much of the cancer as possible before a patient undergoes surgery to remove any remaining tumor in the pancreas—and indeed, the phase II clinical trial demonstrated that it's effective in doing so.
Losartan+FFX+CRT inhibited immunosuppression and reduced the expression of genes that promote the invasion of tumor cells into normal tissue. Also, losartan induced changes in the blood levels of various molecules involved in blood vessel health and the immune response. Lastly, tumor tisse from patients in the losartan+FFX+CRT–treated group had decreased numbers of cells that suppress the immune response and higher numbers of immune cells that are important for killing cancerous or virally infected cells.
Interestingly, Jain and his colleagues found that blood levels of a molecule called soluble Tie2 increased over time in patients treated with losartan+FFX+CRT who experienced only a partial or poor response. Therefore, an increase in soluble Tie2 (which is involved in new blood vessel formation) could be an indication of tumor progression.
"Inspired by our studies on the benefit of losartan, several clinical trials in patients with pancreatic cancer are currently evaluating the effectiveness of adding losartan to different cytotoxic treatment regimens or cytotoxics plus immunotherapy," says Jain.
(Excerpt) Read more at medicalxpress.com ...
FOLFIRINOX
Farfegnugen?
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