Pancreatic Research (PancRes)
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Investigating biological interactions and cross-talk mechanisms between pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) stem cells and healthy blood cells
IRAS ID
224364
Contact name
Christopher Heeschen
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Queen Mary University of London
Duration of Study in the UK
4 years, 0 months, 0 days
Research summary
Human pancreatic cancer has an extremely poor outcome, with 95% of patients dying within 5 years of diagnosis. Current treatment options are limited, and a better understanding of what drives these cancers to be aggressive and difficult to treat is needed.
Majority of cells within a pancreatic tumour are in fact non-cancerous. These non-cancerous cells play a complex role, as some prevent tumour growth, and others promoting it.
One of the most abundant non-cancer cells in pancreatic cancers are a type of immune cell called ‘macrophages’ which help fight bacterial infections in a healthy individual but in cancer, macrophages respond to external signals that can trigger them to support cancer growth.
We have shown that in pancreatic cancer, macrophages can encourage an aggressive group of cancer cells, termed cancer stem cells, to grow more, become resistant to treatment and migrate away from the primary tumour (metastasise). We showed that they do this by secreting specific factors that then act on the cancer stem cells. The cancer stems cells in response secrete factors that drive the macrophages to support them more (rather than fight them), leading to a vicious feedback loop being formed that only leads to a more aggressive cancer developing.
We intent to study how macrophages and pancreatic cancer stem cells interact, thus developing strategies to prevent the interactions that promote cancer growth. In doing so, we hope to find new treatments that one day could be used in the clinic to improve outcomes.
Surplus material from blood donations will be used to extract macrophages. We will then grow these macrophages with pancreatic cancer stem cells and examine how the two cells change upon interaction. We aim to block the specific factors that are driving the pro-cancer relationship and determine how this in turn affects both cell types.
REC name
East of England - Cambridge Central Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
17/EE/0182
Date of REC Opinion
10 May 2017
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion