2024-01-02 17:25:40
A new target to hit to help fight pancreatic cancer. This was discovered by a group of Italian researchers who signed a study published in the international scientific journal ‘Cancer Research’. The research group directed by Davide Melisi, professor of medical oncology at the University of Verona and head of the Experimental Therapies unit of the university hospital of Verona, has identified autotaxin as a possible factor responsible for the resistance of tumor cells to chemotherapy treatments. “Pancreatic cancer – explains Melisi – is a tumor for which there are still no treatments with molecularly targeted drugs or immunotherapy in addition to the classic chemotherapy”.
“Since 2011, when our research group was founded at the University of Verona thanks to an Airc Start-Up loan, we have demonstrated, first in the laboratory and then in clinical studies, the activity of a class of drugs, inhibitors of the so-called Transforming growth factor beta or Tgfß – he continues – The data collected with this most recent study add an important link to our line of research. They demonstrate in fact that the microenvironment of the pancreatic tumor, and in particular its fibroblasts, respond to inhibition of Tgfß with the production of a new factor, autotaxin”. The latter, explains Melisi, “in turn induces resistance and limits the activity of this therapeutic strategy. We have demonstrated this effect both in laboratory animals with pancreatic cancer and in patients treated in clinical trials”.
“The combined use of Tgfß inhibitors and the new autotaxin inhibitor, ioa289, makes tumor cells much more sensitive to chemotherapy. What always makes us very proud – underlines Melisi – is being able to say that our research is based on evidence and problems that emerge directly from the analysis of patients treated in our unit in the context of clinical trials. Above all, the results of these studies do not remain in the laboratory, but serve as a rationale for new clinical studies to be offered to those who are unfortunately affected by these pathologies. We have, in fact, already underway the phase 1 clinical trial of the autotaxin inhibitor, ioa289, with chemotherapy in patients with a new diagnosis of advanced disease. Furthermore, we will shortly have the preliminary results of toxicity and activity of this new therapeutic combination”.
“These studies – concludes the expert – are the result of the work of a solid and close-knit group of young doctors and biologists who have been working with me for years now and which allow us to address the problem of pancreatic cancer in a comprehensive way”.
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