Pancreatic cancer is on course to become the No. 2 cancer killer in the United States. To save more lives, researchers at Oregon Health & Science University have set out to reach the most vulnerable people; work with them to develop a reliable blood test to reveal early signs of the cancer; and validate new scanning techniques to locate and classify suspicious lesions for timely treatment.
The National Cancer Institute awarded the OHSU team a $3.8 million grant for this work, and they were made a member of the NCI's Pancreatic Cancer Detection Consortium.
"We can move fast as part of this national consortium," said principal investigator Rosalie Sears, Ph.D., a professor of molecular and medical genetics in the OHSU School of Medicine.
Sears and Brett Sheppard, M.D., are co-directors of the Brenden-Colson Center for Pancreatic Care at OHSU, and members of the OHSU Knight Cancer Institute.
"Our progress is really accelerating, and I think we have a huge opportunity to make an impact on high-risk populations," said Sheppard, one of three other principal investigators and a professor of surgery at OHSU.
Over the past decade, the five-year survival rate for pancreatic cancer patients increased from 6% to 12%. Chances of surviving remain low because most patients are diagnosed after tumors have spread. For those diagnosed at the earliest stage, five-year survival rates can exceed 80%.
"If you can just pick up these people early, you can change the whole game," Sheppard said.
Three-pronged strategy
Screening tests for cancer must be highly sensitive to not miss dangerous tumors, but also highly specific to avoid false alarms and unnecessary interventions. The OHSU team is working with a blood test that looks for pancreatic cancer by analyzing the variety of proteins that are contained in particles shed by cells. The microchip-based test requires only small amounts of blood and uses machine learning to identify cancer signatures. Stuart Ibsen, Ph.D., an assistant professor of biomedical engineering in the OHSU School of Medicine, OHSU Knight Cancer Institute, is collaborating on this work.
