Stanford Scientists Discover New Way to Make Pancreatic Cancer Cells Respond to Treatment

California [US], July 5: Pancreatic cancer is a tough disease to treat because it often resists treatment. Researchers at Stanford University have found that the stiffness of the tissue around cancer cells plays a big role in this resistance. Their study, published in Nature Materials, shows that softer tissue makes cancer cells more responsive to chemotherapy.

Key Findings

Sarah Heilshorn, a professor at Stanford, and her team discovered that stiffer tissue makes pancreatic cancer cells resistant to chemotherapy. They created special materials that mimic the properties of both healthy and cancerous pancreatic tissues. By studying these materials, they found that cancer cells in stiff tissue with high levels of hyaluronic acid became resistant to chemotherapy over time.

How They Did It

Heilshorn worked with PhD student Bauer LeSavage to develop a new system to study these changes. They used cells from pancreatic cancer patients and found that blocking a receptor called CD44 or moving the cells to softer tissue could make the cancer cells sensitive to chemotherapy again.

Future Implications

This discovery opens up new ways to treat pancreatic cancer by targeting the stiffness of the tissue around the cancer cells. The researchers are continuing to study the CD44 receptor and improve their cell culture models to find even better treatments.

Heilshorn emphasized the importance of using realistic models to test new drugs, as the environment around the cells can greatly affect how they respond to treatment.