Comments

You must log in or register to comment.

DamonSing t1_it79gpw wrote

This is great! My father died of pancreatic cancer earlier this year. They diagnosed him and he was dead in two months. I hope this will save many people from going through that.

124

KingGeorges t1_it7fih1 wrote

100% yes. My mom died last month from pancreatic cancer and we got 140 days from diagnosis. Her father died from it 40 years prior. This gives me hope. Sorry for your loss. I know how hard it was.

55

DamonSing t1_it7idlg wrote

I’m so sorry for your loss. It’s a vicious cancer. I hope this really helps save lives.

20

DuckyDoodleDandy t1_it8486i wrote

Sounds like you have a high risk and should be checked for it regularly. I’m sorry for you loss!

12

KingGeorges t1_it8blm9 wrote

I plan on getting checked, but surprisingly the DNA testing said it wasn't genetic. However they were both type 2 diabetics which I am going to watch out for...

9

account916160 t1_it8i4jp wrote

My mom died 5 months ago, 6 weeks after diagnosis... Totally out of the blue. I hope you are doing well, sending you a hug.

9

DamonSing t1_it8mkji wrote

My father died around the same time. I hope you are well and I’m sending a ghost hug back to you 💕

4

doogihowser t1_it87j2h wrote

My grandfather and my uncle (his son) both died of pancreatic cancer. Its not looking great for me.

5

pgcooldad t1_it8f5xf wrote

Same with a friend of mine - 2 months. Sorry for your loss.

5

ProceedOrRun t1_it99nng wrote

Two months sounds a whole lot better than the 5 days of agony my cousin got. Sure never had time to organise anything either, and every doctor just said nope. Didn't even have a will at that point, and her partner barely got to see her because of of covid. Must be one of the worst variations.

5

chrisdh79 OP t1_it6ryt8 wrote

From the article: Engineers at Duke University have developed a novel delivery system for cancer treatment and demonstrated its potential against one of the disease’s most troublesome forms. In newly published research in mice with pancreatic cancer, the scientists showed how a radioactive implant could completely eliminate tumors in the majority of the rodents, demonstrating what they say is the most effective treatment ever studied in these pre-clinical models.

Pancreatic cancer is notoriously difficult to diagnose and treat, with tumor cells of this type highly evasive and loaded with mutations that make them resistant to many drugs. It accounts for just 3.2 percent of all cancers, yet is the third leading cause of cancer-related death. One way of tackling it is by deploying chemotherapy to hold the tumor cells in a state that makes them vulnerable to radiation, and then hitting the tumor with a targeted radiation beam.

But doing so in a way that attacks the tumor but doesn’t expose the patient to heavy doses of radiation is a fine line to tread, and raises the risk of severe side effects. Another method scientists are exploring is the use of implants that can be placed directly inside the tumor to attack it with radioactive materials from within. They have made some inroads using titanium shells to encase the radioactive samples, but these can cause damage to the surrounding tissue.

"There's just no good way to treat pancreatic cancer right now," said study author Jeff Schaal.

57

illPMyoumycatanddog t1_it7e0a3 wrote

This just sounds like an improved way to do brachytherapy rather than a "novel delivery system for cancer treatment".

29

R1ckMartel t1_it7rs6o wrote

Yeah, there is nothing novel about this.

8

Silpion t1_it84ql5 wrote

Injecting the source as a liquid solution that hardens inside the body isn't novel?

4

R1ckMartel t1_it85txq wrote

There are numerous targeted molecular therapies with radiopharmaceuticals that would achieve precise localization to the tumor when attached to a ligand and chelating molecule. Hardening is irrelevant.

Lutathera is a prime example.

Why they choose I-131 is bizarre to me. It has a more mixed emission spectrum (a 364 kEV gamma) that would irradiate more of the surrounding, healthy tissue than other agents like Lutetium-177 that are almost pure beta-emitters.

3

hopelesscaribou t1_it7b50k wrote

This reminds me of the radium treatments they used for Henrietta Lacks cervical cancer.

26

Silpion t1_it7dkp4 wrote

Medical physicist here. That class of treatments, called brachytherapy, is still alive and well. It has common applications in gynecological, breast, prostate, and eye cancers, and uncommon uses in several other sites. I work on delivering some of those treatments myself.

A challenge with pancreas is implanting the sources into the pancreas without causing catastrophic mechanical damage, since the pancreas is so sensitive. It sounds like they developed a new encapsulation that the pancreas doesn't mind as much.

24

TEOsix t1_it7k5lc wrote

My oncologist is at Duke and my tumor is in my pancreas. From what I have heard about the Whipple, I would be willing to take this risk.

30

manofredgables t1_it7mq1a wrote

Fwiw, it saved my dad from pancreatic cancer. Yeah. He lived. Some shit went wrong though, and pancreatic stuff wreaked havoc on his intestines but he was fine in the end.

17

TEOsix t1_ita641j wrote

They are all scary levels of connected from what I have seen. You cannot take one parts out as they are all interconnected. Seems like your dad was very lucky.

1

manofredgables t1_itbjl4a wrote

Yeah. Then he died from mesothelioma 2 years after, completely unrelated to rhe pancreatic cancer. Cause fuck that guy in particular I guess :/

1

TEOsix t1_itc5b8d wrote

Sorry to hear that. My pops passed about 8 years ago. Cancer comes for a whole lot of people.

1

manofredgables t1_itdaony wrote

Yeah... This was only 2 months ago, so still pretty fresh in my mind. If nothing else, it'll be cancer, that's just inevitable I guess. But so unfair at 72. Like, he just retired and started getting to know his grand kids. Such a shitty hand to be dealt, but that's how it is sometimes I guess.

1

BlondeMomentByMoment t1_it7wr0j wrote

The book about her and her life, which also includes the evolution of patient rights related to clinical research is a good read.

4

rach2bach t1_it8j86a wrote

I don't really agree with one thing here: it's difficulty to diagnose. Most Interventional radiologists or endo docs are able to hit pancreatic lesions with ease, even sub-centimeter in size. Getting diagnostic tissue/cells isn't "difficult" in the sense that they can't do it, it's more that catching it early is the difficult part of the lesion is really small i.e. early stage typically.

Source: I worked as a cytotech for years dx these tumors. Sure there's differentials in cytology and histology, but any pathologist worth their weight will order special stains to confirm/rule out things that may be "trickier" to look at.

11

ScottyandSoco t1_it8pica wrote

My husband was just diagnosed with prostate cancer (low grade) and our medical coverage (kaiser) doesn’t use the radioactive seed implants any longer. His father had them and it worked 100% for him. Waiting to talk to oncology to get more info.

7

randomguyofthefuture t1_ita3o4h wrote

One of the top doctors at UFPTI using Proton radiation therapy for prostate cancer has stated that he considers Brachytherapy {seeds} is really the "dark ages" of radiation therapy. There are just too many problems like migration and lack of precise targeting that caused secondary side effects. The pancreas is surrounded by other essential organs that make it hard to target with traditional radiation and surgery without damaging them. Early detection is essential to be able to treat pancreatic cancer whatever the treatment. Other types of treatments other than radiation like chemotherapy and immunotherapy may be a better choice in the future.

1

FuturologyBot t1_it6v785 wrote

The following submission statement was provided by /u/chrisdh79:

From the article: Engineers at Duke University have developed a novel delivery system for cancer treatment and demonstrated its potential against one of the disease’s most troublesome forms. In newly published research in mice with pancreatic cancer, the scientists showed how a radioactive implant could completely eliminate tumors in the majority of the rodents, demonstrating what they say is the most effective treatment ever studied in these pre-clinical models.

Pancreatic cancer is notoriously difficult to diagnose and treat, with tumor cells of this type highly evasive and loaded with mutations that make them resistant to many drugs. It accounts for just 3.2 percent of all cancers, yet is the third leading cause of cancer-related death. One way of tackling it is by deploying chemotherapy to hold the tumor cells in a state that makes them vulnerable to radiation, and then hitting the tumor with a targeted radiation beam.

But doing so in a way that attacks the tumor but doesn’t expose the patient to heavy doses of radiation is a fine line to tread, and raises the risk of severe side effects. Another method scientists are exploring is the use of implants that can be placed directly inside the tumor to attack it with radioactive materials from within. They have made some inroads using titanium shells to encase the radioactive samples, but these can cause damage to the surrounding tissue.

"There's just no good way to treat pancreatic cancer right now," said study author Jeff Schaal.

Please reply to OP's comment here: https://old.reddit.com/r/Futurology/comments/y9q6kr/engineers_at_duke_university_have_developed_a/it6ryt8/

1

Aubenabee t1_it89jou wrote

Radiopharmaceutical chemist here. This is fine but of little clinical utility. How is this supposed to work against disseminated disease?!

1

fhwulala t1_itaw2ks wrote

With radioligands for pancreatic cancer already on the market, the bar would be pretty high. Hopefully it can achieve similar survival benefit with less myelosuppression.

1

WeakComparison8347 t1_itkwxbz wrote

Hi what is it about the Radioligands? Does it also work if the genetic tests are negative?

1

fhwulala t1_itl05w1 wrote

The radioligands targets receptors and surface antigens, I am assuming that's what you meant by genetic tests. Unfortunately they are not useful if the tumor cells lacks those targets, perhaps that's where this technology may be useful.

1

Friendly-Tell-5947 t1_ith79jd wrote

This sounds amazing! Sometimes a small component of the general idea is the key one. In this case this is the gel that is used for the delivery of the radio element and the insertion of the radio element into the tumor site. I hope this approach succeeds.

1

WeakComparison8347 t1_itkwqsy wrote

Hi is there any human clinical trial available for this?My brother is suffering from pancreatic tail cancer stage 4 and chemotherapy seems to be not working for him

1

bitch_pasta t1_itlakgq wrote

In the article it says the next step for the researchers will be experimenting on larger animals. It may be awhile until it gets to the human trial stage.

2

snarf1974 t1_it9uw97 wrote

A novel cure for cancer, stop.using diesel cars, that might help.

−1

LaserMike_65 t1_itbxmer wrote

Well stop the presses, front page headlines: “Diesel car ban could be a new Novel cure for cancer” Wow, the brilliance of some people. Wish I had thought of that.

2

arhombus t1_it7ym17 wrote

Won't matter. The issue with pancreatic cancer is that it's often metastatic before it's discovered. This, if it works, won't help.

−6

N3uroi t1_it8d5cb wrote

That's not true. Even if the tumor has metastazised, it is still very possible that the primary tumor ultimately provokes fatal consequences. To take the example of my mother, her pancreatic tumor grew to block the veins draining the kidneys. While her ultimate cause of death was pancreatic cancer, the proximate was kidney failure, exacerbated by severe dehydration from ileus which resulted from the peritoneal metastases of the pancreatic cancer. Her kidney function before the ileus developed was at only 15 %, which is a kidney failure by definition.

Even before metastases develop, a large proportion of tumors is inoperable due to involvement of blood vessels. This group of patients is the target for these treatments. In pancreatic cancer the tumor microevironment, mainly the pancreatic stellate cells hinder the effectiveness of chemotherapy. Radiotherapy is limited in its applicability by the sensitivity of surrounding tissue, namely the small intestine. It is therefore great to have different treatment options. Future studies will show the effectiveness in comparison with established treatment regimes and this may or may not be an improvement.

10

arhombus t1_it8ehst wrote

So you're agreeing with me that it won't help. Even if the patient is not metastatic, this won't be of much help.

−2

N3uroi t1_it8ezrz wrote

No, I don't agree. How do you define "help"? A localized treatment can never heal a systemic disease, like metastatic cancer. I detailed exactly under which circumstances it could be a beneficial treatment.

4

arhombus t1_it8g7iy wrote

Help? I define it as extending life in a meaningful way.

−1

ConfirmedCynic t1_it89ccd wrote

If it does work, it might be too costly, playing whack-a-mole with tumors as they pop up for the rest of the patient's life. There are anti-metastasis drugs under development though. Perhaps in combination with those.

−1

arhombus t1_it8esse wrote

There's been chemo cocktails for pancreatic cancer for several decades, the same ones. GTX is one of them. Same problem though, the patient is usually too weak to continue. So they put em on a less toxic drug like capecitabine and then they die.

2