Johns Hopkins scientists have found a way to lessen the recurrence of pancreatic cancer in patients with borderline resectable or locally advanced pancreatic cancer, according to an announcement.
Of the 20 study participants, just one had cancer recurrence after two years. The researchers’ strategy included shrinking the patients’ tumors away from blood vessels with chemotherapy and radiation. They then used “targeted radiation during surgery — referred to as intraoperative radiation — to eliminate pancreatic cancer cells that have spread to areas around the pancreas.” To do this, they used “a robotic device that carries small radioactive beads inserted through catheters.” The device allowed the scientists to precisely target the “Baltimore triangle,” an area where recurrences are common. This resulted in an only 5% recurrence rate around the pancreas.
It is important to note that the pre-surgery chemotherapy and radiation was also aimed at the Baltimore triangle. Additionally, the participant that experienced recurrence after two years had it in an area of the Baltimore triangle that is hard to reach. The researchers are working on finding ways to treat this area.
Amol Narang, M.D., associate professor of radiation oncology and molecular radiation sciences told Johns Hopkins Medicine in a press release, “The combination of intraoperative radiation and targeting the Baltimore triangle has gotten us to a 5% recurrence rate, which is the lowest-ever reported recurrence rate around the pancreas for this population of patients to our knowledge. But I think we can drop to 0% in our next study. We must do whatever we can to prevent recurrences from happening, because when pancreatic cancer comes back, it is often incurable. These results give us hope, though, that this can be done for a cancer where even decade ago, most thought this wasn’t possible.”
