The Next Frontier in Pancreatic Cancer: Targeting the Tumor Immune Milieu and Molecular Pathways.

ABSTRACT: Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is an aggressive cancer with abysmal prognosis. It is currently the third most common cause of cancer-related mortality, despite being the 11th most common cancer. Chemotherapy is standard of care in all stages of pancreatic cancer, yet survival, particularly in the advanced stages, often remains under one year. We are turning to immunotherapies and targeted therapies in PDAC in order to directly attack the core features that make PDAC notoriously resistant to chemotherapy. While the initial studies of these agents in PDAC have generally been disappointing, we find optimism in recent preclinical and early clinical research. We find that despite the immunosuppressive effects of the PDAC tumor microenvironment, new strategies, such as combining immune

SUBMITTER: Yin C 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9179513 | biostudies-literature | 2022 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature