Pancreatic Cancer: Gene Therapy Eradicates Pancreatic Cancer in Preclinical Trial

Researchers discover a gene that is selectively embedded into the pancreatic cancer cells that kills the cells ultimately shrinking the tumor and inhibiting metastasis to other parts of the body. The embedded gene is so selective to attack the cancer cells only that it was found to have little to no toxic effects to the body. The gene VISA, short for versatile expression vector contains a promoter and two components that boost its gene expression in the targeted tissue. The payload is the actual gene that is used to kill the cancer cells and all this is bundled into a liposome and is injected into the patient intravenously where it finds it's target. Research shows that there are about 37,000 cases of pancreatic cancer are diagnosed each year. Because of the high incidences of diagnosed cases and the severe fatality rate of this cancer, the research team is pressing for a Phase 1 clinical trial. The requirements for such a trial is estimated to take one to two years before the FDA review and approval is completed. Fewer than 4 percent of the diagnosed cases of this cancer survive 5 years, most die within months because the aggressiveness of the cancer often causes metastasis to other organs of the body.

The test therapy in mice worked with two aggressive strains of cancer in two different types of mice. Inserted into the VISA system was a mutant version of a gene named Bik, which contains a gene that expresses a protein that naturally forces the cancer cells to kill themselves. Through numerous studies, the team developed an even more lethal mutant and named this BikDD. In the study, the mice who were not treated died within 40 days of injection with the cancer. Those treated with Bik died within 90 days and those mice treated with the VISA-BikDD had a survival rate of about half the mice living up to 14 months with no signs of re-occurrence.the mice that were injected with the more aggressive strain developed tumors in the liver, spleen, kidneys, bladder, lungs, bones and intestines. The mice treated with Bik showed some tumors in other organs while the BikDD treated mice showed no detectable metastasis.