Research in pancreas cancer is essential to improving outcomes. In spring 2018, a group of Stanford Cancer Institute researchers and clinicians established the Pancreas Cancer Research Group (PCRG), a network of scientists interested in advancing research and care in pancreas cancer. The goal of the PCRG is to facilitate and expedite impactful research on pancreas cancer at Stanford.
“The idea was to bring together people who approach pancreas cancer from different angles, meaning clinicians who treat it, researchers who work on early detection, and basic scientists who do experiments in the laboratory to understand how pancreas cancer develops using mouse models,” said SCI member and PCRG co-leader Laura Attardi, PhD, professor of radiation oncology and of genetics and co-director of the Stanford Cancer Biology Graduate Program. “The goal is to make more progress in this deadly disease by bringing together people who don’t necessarily interact to allow them to brainstorm together.”
The PCRG is focused on catalyzing collaborative projects through a central website, monthly face-to-face meetings, seed grants, and a program project grant application, according to SCI member and PCRG co-leader George A. Fisher, MD, PhD, professor of medicine (oncology). The group currently encompasses 31 members from various disciplines at Stanford, including pathology, radiology, gastroenterology, medical oncology, surgical oncology, radiation oncology, genetics, molecular biology, cancer biology, and immunology.
“The group was formulated because we realized there were many different approaches that can be integrated at Stanford,” said SCI member and PCRG co-leader Seung K. Kim, MD, PhD, professor of developmental biology and (by courtesy) of medicine (oncology) and director of the Stanford Diabetes Research Center. “The goals initially are to work better together to develop joint projects, develop more translational applications for basic work, and produce new information for the Stanford community about pancreas cancer.”
To kick off this collaboration, the PCRG held an inaugural retreat in September 2018 where members presented their general research interests and brainstormed ways to join forces through their work. “Great discussions and collaborative projects emerged from these discussions,” Fisher said. “The retreat brought clinical researchers together with laboratory scientists.”
One collaboration has evolved into a program project grant application. The researchers will work on characterizing the immune cell changes that occur when the genetic composition of mice is changed. Research has shown that when P53 (a critical tumor suppressor) is removed from a mouse pancreas, the mouse rapidly develops pancreas cancer. “We’re trying to understand how the immune cells might change in that setting and whether it gives us an idea of how to develop better immunotherapies,” Attardi explained.
On the clinical side, Stanford is moving toward preoperative chemotherapy rather than surgically removing tumors before patients undergo chemotherapy. The benefit is that it allows clinicians to analyze tumor and blood samples after a tumor is removed to determine the effects of the chemotherapy. With this new method, researchers can evaluate molecular changes in a tumor as a consequence of exposure to new drugs.
Fisher added that the group is committed to supporting clinical and laboratory postdoctoral fellows interested in pancreas-related projects and hopes to have faculty recruitment for a pancreas cancer researcher.