A trio of premier Southwest biomedical research centers — HonorHealth Research Institute, City of Hope and the Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen), part of City of Hope — have developed a more precise method that may help determine when it is best to surgically remove of pancreatic cancer tumors.
To take some of the guess work out of when it is safer, and more effective, to surgically remove pancreas tumors, the three research centers developed a precision method of scoring tumors based on an innovative 3D imaging technology developed by City of Hope, according to the findings of a clinical trial study published March 29 in the scientific journal Frontiers in Imaging.
Using the 3D technology, each patient was scanned initially and scored on a range of R1-R10 to see if they qualified for surgery. Those ranked R1-R5 were eligible for surgery, and those ranked R6-R10 were not.
Patients were placed on a four-drug therapy of paricalcitol, paclitaxel, cisplatin and gemcitabine, a treatment regimen for pancreatic cancer pioneered by TGen and HonorHealth. Each patient was scanned again at 2-month intervals to see if the therapy caused their tumors to lose blood supply and shrink.
“After administration of the neoadjuvant (before surgery) therapy, 81% of patients (18 of 22) received an R score of 5 or less, deeming all of them eligible for surgery,” the study said.
Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen) release on Newswise
