Novel Study Urges Researchers to Study Pancreatic Cancer in a New Way

In this study, researchers performed the first comprehensive analysis of the current landscape of clinical trials for pancreatic cancer to better understand the near future of potential new therapies. 3D illustration of Pancreas - part of digestive The vast scope of studies currently underway around the world sometimes makes it difficult to determine the current state of research in a particular field. Researchers based out of Cleveland, Ohio, and Charlotte, North Carolina, found this to be especially true when it comes to pancreatic cancer research. Published in Oncotarget, these researchers authored a paper meticulously detailing the current state of research in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC). Chicago hospital Houston hospital Phoenix hospital Pancreatic Cancer Research Funding The National Institutes of Health (NIH) allocates somewhere around $6 billion annually to fund cancer research and, of these funds, more than $100 million is dedicated solely to the study of pancreatic cancer. Other agency, organization, and industry sponsors have contributed millions of additional dollars in funding to PDAC research over the years. Given these figures, one would expect not only a heap of research studies but also numerous treatment options and advancements in the disease. However, authors of this paper dutifully sorted through the data to uncover a disparate reality and, more positively, opportunities for new therapies and approaches. The authors carefully divided their analysis by current phase of the study, clinical stage of the study population, type of intervention under investigation, and the biological mechanism targeted. “Unlike many other common cancers, there have been no new paradigm-changing therapies in the past 40 years beyond multi-agent chemotherapy. In this study, we perform the first comprehensive analysis of the current clinical trial landscape in pancreatic cancer to better understand the pipeline of new therapies.”