Leahia Hansen

News Analysis 2#

02/25/17

The article I picked is in sciencedaily.com Why is Pancreatic Cancer so hard to treat?

Stroma provides new clues published on Feb 23, 2016 is about the difficulty in diagnosing

pancreatic cancer. Only 8 percent of the patients living with pancreatic cancer live around 5 years

and this is only due to early diagnosis, the majority die before then. Usually once this cancer is

found it has spread throughout the system and is far to advanced at that time to treat. The stroma

is the tissue that surrounds and protects the cancer, making it harder to treat. This article

discusses recent findings as to why this happens and how the cancer spreads so easily. They

found that Fibroblasts are what form parts of the stroma. It was found the fibroblasts where

different in some parts of the tumor and maybe where the weakness is in populations of

inflammatory fibroblasts and myofibroblasts in pancreatic cancer, published in the journal of

Experimental Medicine. The story source came from Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. The

scientist addresses the differences and states new therapies are possible in treating these cancers.

The positive impacts of this information is that pancreatic cancers can be found and treated

more effectively. Historically chemotherapy has caused patients to have a weakened immune

system and at times have caused the spread of the cancer. There have been some conflicting

reports recently from other labs that attacked the stromas in a different way to try to effectively

treat it instead of chemotherapy. In some of these studies they had encouraging results. If this is

the case it could change the wat Dr approach treating this form of cancer and give patients a

more effective option then chemotherapy.

 The researchers in reference are Tuveson who is the director of research in Lustgarten

Foundation and the Director of the Cancer center at Cold Spring Labs. It was his teams

technology used to create the experiments. His team consists of Sylvia Fernandez-Boj, and

Hans Cleve

The topic has helped expand my view with this cancer. My father who lives with me was

recently diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. As a matter of fact, one week after I started this term.

He started chemo a few weeks ago and at times I have wondered if that is the best course of

actions for a 70 year old. I have had questions on why it is so hard to treat and around the

treatment plan all together. This has helped me understand why at times it does not work.

I think the reported did a good job in describing medical terms, like Storma, PDHs,

CAFs, and more. Also his descriptions around the tumor in that it is a raisin in an oatmeal cookie

are what I pictures reading about it.