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Like millions of people in the US, artificial intelligence was just something Dianne Balon read about on the news. Little did she know the tech would come to save her life. Despite being a picture of health, an AI-powered blood test in 2022 revealed that one of the world's deadliest cancers was silently forming in Ms Balon's pancreas. It caught the tumor in its earliest form, before it had the chance to grow and spread, which is when the vast majority of pancreatic cancers are caught - at which point it's too late. The results of the test provided a...

A study reveals a direct link between high insulin levels, common among patients with obesity and type 2 diabetes, and pancreatic cancer. The study provides the first detailed explanation of why people with obesity and type 2 diabetes are at an increased risk of pancreatic cancer. The research demonstrates that excessive insulin levels overstimulate pancreatic acinar cells, which produce digestive juices. This overstimulation leads to inflammation that converts these cells into precancerous cells. "Alongside the rapid increase in both obesity and type 2 diabetes, we're seeing an alarming rise in pancreatic cancer rates," said Dr. James Johnson. "These findings help...

Pancreatic cancer is one of the most difficult cancers to treat, being highly resistant to chemotherapy. However, there are no effective alternative therapies to chemotherapy, so chemo remains the best available treatment. Researchers report that a hyperglycemic state—that is, one where the blood glucose level is raised—made pancreatic cancer more sensitive to chemotherapy in a mouse model. (Pancreatic cancer is more formally known as Pancreatic Ductal Adenocarcinoma and shortened as PDAC). Results were replicated in cell culture and a cohort of patients with metastatic PDAC. These findings present a potentially new method of making chemotherapy more effective against pancreatic cancer,...

a tiny hollow tube made of shiny silver metal position on the tip of a finger Credit: Houston Methodist Anew drug delivery system for pancreatic tumors could dramatically decrease medication dosages — helping patients avoid unpleasant side effects without sacrificing efficacy. The challenge: With just half a million new diagnoses every year, pancreatic cancer is relatively rare, but it’s also notoriously difficult to detect and treat. “Pancreatic cancer cells are able to survive a lot of things — radiation therapy, chemotherapy, having no oxygen or blood supply,” oncology researcher Arturo Loaiza-Bonilla, who wasn’t involved in the new study, explained in...

Urolithin A, a metabolite of ellagitannins in pomegranates, boosts immune cells’ ability to combat tumors by inducing a process known as mitophagy. STORY AT-A-GLANCE Urolithin A (UA) has emerged as a powerhouse player in the fight against cancer, as it may naturally boost tumor-fighting immune cells. UA is a metabolite of ellagitannins in pomegranates that has anti-inflammatory and anticancer effects. UA “recycles and renews mitochondria” by inducing a biological pathway known as mitophagy—the process of cleaning out your mitochondria, allowing them to function at their best. This changes T cells’ genetic program, making them more able to fight tumors. In...

Pancreatic cancer tumors are being missed on CT and MRI scans, narrowing the window for life-saving curative surgery. The study analyzed post-imaging pancreatic cancer (PIPC) cases, where a patient undergoes imaging that fails to diagnose pancreatic cancer but is then later diagnosed with the disease. Results revealed over a third (36%) of PIPC cases were potentially avoidable, demonstrating a poor detection rate for a cancer that has alarming patient outcomes. UK researchers studied the records of 600 patients diagnosed with pancreatic cancer between 2016 and 2021. Of those, 46 (7.7%) patients failed to have their cancer diagnosed through their first...

Pancreatic carcinoma is a tumor with an extremely poor prognosis for which effective treatments have not yet been found. A team has now discovered a way of making pancreatic tumors treatable with immunotherapy methods using a targeted combination of two cancer drugs. The researchers believe that the promising combined approach could also prove effective with other cancer types. Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is the most common form of pancreatic cancer. The disease is almost always fatal, with a 10-year survival rate of around 1 percent. The prognosis is especially poor for a subgroup of these tumors known as mesenchymal PDAC...

As the third-most lethal cancer in the United States, with only a 1% five-year survival rate for people with its most aggressive form, pancreatic cancer has long been a target of researchers who search for ways to slow or stop its growth and spread. Now, researchers have found that an anti-parasitic drug prevents pancreatic cancer's initiation, progression and metastasis in genetically engineered mice. …Mebendazole could slow or stop the growth and spread of both early and late-stage pancreatic cancer. "We think that mebendazole could have a role in all stages," Riggins says. "It was particularly effective for pancreatic cancer that...

That didn't take long. A former Obama adviser set the stage for a potentially nasty confirmation fight in the Senate next year within an hour of the Supreme Court announcing Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg recently completed three weeks of radiation treatment after doctors found a localized cancerous tumor on her pancreas. * * * Ginsburg, who is 86, has battled various illnesses over the last 20 years. The Supreme Court said in a statement Friday that she “tolerated the treatment well" and concluded that there is no evidence of disease elsewhere in her body.

"Jeopardy!" host Alex Trebek revealed in a YouTube video Wednesday that he has been diagnosed with stage 4 pancreatic cancer. Trebek said in the video he was given the health update this week. "Now normally, the prognosis for this is not very encouraging, but I’m going to fight this, and I’m going to keep working," he said. "And with the love and support of my family and friends and with the help of your prayers also, I plan to beat the low survival rate statistics for this disease."

Scientists at UCLA's California NanoSystems Institute and Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center have combined their nanotechnology expertise to create a new treatment that may solve some of the problems of using chemotherapy to treat pancreatic cancer. The study, published online in the journal ACS Nano, describes successful experiments to combine two drugs within a specially designed mesoporous silica nanoparticle that looks like a glass bubble. The drugs work together to shrink human pancreas tumors in mice as successfully as the current standard treatment, but at one twelfth the dosage. This lower dosage could reduce both the cost of treatment and the...

DETROIT (Reuters) – Soul singer Aretha Franklin, who recently underwent surgery for an undisclosed health issue, was reported to be suffering from pancreatic cancer, the Detroit News said on its web site. Publicists for the 68-year-old singer, who has canceled all her appearances through May 2011, could not immediately be reached for comment...

Perhaps it is enough to hate high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) because the federal government has encouraged its production for decades by imposing high tariffs on sugar imports and by subsidizing corn farmers. (It’s certainly enough for me.) In addition, HFCS-haters blame the sugar for making Americans ever fatter and less healthy. So with so much to hate to go around, when UCLA researchers reported earlier this week that feeding HFCS to pancreatic cancer cells boosts their proliferation in lab dishes, the media jumped on the story. The study’s chief author even suggested that a federal effort should be launched...

Rick, my brother in law is very sick and needs prayer badly. 2 weeks ago he turned very yellow, they found out his liver bile duct was clogged. So he went to have it cleaned out. While the docs were doing this, they happened to look at the pancreas and found cancer. He is scheduled to see a group of doctors on monday. They believe they can get all the cancer, but, his heart is in such bad shape, he's had 2 heart attacks. The doctors are not sure he would survive the 5 hour operation. To me the worst...

Every once in a while, a piece of medical research crosses my desk that I feel has the potential to change how medicine is practiced. Today is one of those days. A recent medical article revealed that patients with end stage pancreatic cancer and treated with an antioxidant and narcotic-like medication lived longer than expected. The pancreas is located in the abdomen, behind the stomach. It has multiple functions, including secreting enzymes that help digestion and regulating blood sugar levels by releasing insulin. Unfortunately, cancer can also begin in the pancreas. According to the National Institutes of Health, about 42,000...

Combining a nanotech method of getting genes inside cancer cells with genetic engineering of a potent suicide gene driven by control signals that are very active only in cancer cells effectively killed cell lines derived from pancreatic cancer, a deadly cancer for which there is currently no effective treatment. From Thomas Jefferson University, via AAAS EurekAlert “Jefferson scientists deliver toxic genes to effectively kill pancreatic cancer cells“:

Washington (ANI): Cancer-stricken movie star Patrick Swayze is expected to reprise his role in the sequel to the hit 1991 film 'Point Break'. If his health allows, the 55-year-old star would be reliving his character of 'Bodhi' for the film, reports Contactmusic. According to The Sun, the sequel is due to be shot in Singapore and Indonesia, however, the cast for the movie is as yet unconfirmed. Earlier this year, Swazye had confirmed that he was suffering from pancreatic cancer. The 'Dirty Dancing' legend has reportedly readied his will, transferring his property worth millions to his wife of 32 years....

Source: Harvard School of Public Health Date: January 17, 2007 Link Found Between Periodontal Disease And Pancreatic Cancer Science Daily — Pancreatic cancer is the fourth leading cause of cancer death in the U.S.; more than 30,000 Americans are expected to die from the disease this year. It is an extremely difficult cancer to treat and little is known about what causes it. One established risk factor in pancreatic cancer is cigarette smoking; other links have been made to obesity, diabetes type 2 and insulin resistance. In a new study, researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) and...

The researchers behind the Screensaver-Lifesaver project – which uses the ‘idle time’ of millions of computers worldwide to screen for anti-cancer drugs – are now turning their attention to fighting pancreatic cancer. The Screensaver-Lifesaver project is run out of the National Foundation for Cancer Research (NFCR) Centre for Computational Drug Discovery under the direction of Professor Graham Richards, Chairman of the Department of Chemistry at the University of Oxford. In a recent joint statement with the NFCR and Dr. Daniel Von Hoff of the Center for Targeted Cancer Therapies at the University of Arizona and the Translational Genomics Research Institute,...