Media release

From: La Trobe University

Researchers from the Olivia Newton-John Cancer Research Institute (ONJ Cancer Research Institute) / the La Trobe University School of Cancer Medicine, have discovered a novel drug target to potentially improve the treatment of pancreatic cancer.

Pancreatic cancer is one of the most aggressive and deadliest cancers with very low survival rates – only 11 per cent of patients remaining alive five years after their initial diagnosis (AIHW).

Immunotherapy is one of the most powerful treatments for cancer. It involves boosting the ability of immune cells to recognize and remove cancer cells. However, currently pancreatic cancer is almost completely unresponsive.

The results of this new study, published in the prestigious journal, Cell Reports, was led by researchers at the ONJ Cancer Research Institute/ La Trobe University. The lead author of the study, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Dr Ashleigh Poh, explained the importance of these new findings.

“We have identified a novel drug target that can improve the response of pancreatic tumors to immunotherapy. This is important because most pancreatic cancer patients do not respond to existing anti-cancer drugs, and the survival rate of pancreatic cancer has not improved over the past few decades. We hope to eventually translate these findings into the clinic and improve survival outcomes for pancreatic cancer patients.”

The study was led by Professor Matthias Ernst, Director of the ONJ Cancer Research Institute and Head of La Trobe University School of Cancer Medicine, and included international collaborators from the University of San Francisco. It shows that inhibition of hematopoietic cell kinase (HCK), a protein found in a type of immune cell, improves the response of pancreatic cancer to immunotherapy in preclinical models. It also reduced the spread of cancer cells to other areas of the body – a process known as metastasis.

Professor Matthias Ernst warned that it is likely to take several years before the current discovery could reach clinical applications, but that the ONJ Cancer Research Institute is uniquely placed to accelerate these findings towards future clinical trials.

“Because we work in the same building as our oncologist colleagues at Austin Health, our discoveries in the laboratory can be quickly translated into patient trials. What this also means is that observations from the clinic can be investigated by our research team – a continual cycle of learning and improvement between scientific research and patient care.”