Pancreatic Cancer - Cancer Research UK

Getting to the root of tumour blood vessels

Posted on January 18, 2013 by Marianne Baker

This entry is part 2 of 4 in our Microenvironment series

Blood vessels are the ‘roots’ of a tumour. Image source: Wikimedia Commons

In the first of this series we explained how the ‘neighbourhood’, or microenvironment, around a cancer affects how it grows and spreads.

In this next post we’re taking a look at how blood vessels grow into, and feed, a tumour.

Angiogenesis

As we’ve said before, a tumour can be thought of as a ‘rogue organ’ in the body – not one that is useful to us, but one that has the same requirements as any other. This includes a network of blood vessels (vasculature), supplying the cancer cells with oxygen and nutrients, and removing waste products. And, in the case of cancer, enabling it to survive, grow, and spread around the body.

But while the blood supply feeding our healthy tissues grows as we develop in the womb, a tumour has to ‘plumb in’ its own blood supply from nearby blood vessels – a process known as angiogenesis.

And because angiogenesis is so fundamental to how cancers grow and spread, it’s an exciting focus for cancer researchers all over the world.

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‘Sleeping Beauty’ reveals new pancreatic cancer genes

Posted on April 29, 2012 by Kat Arney

A ‘jumping gene’ called Sleeping Beauty has revealed new hope in understanding pancreatic cancer

Over recent decades we have made huge progress in survival for many types of cancer, including breast, bowel, testicular, and prostate cancer as well as childhood cancers.

But some types of cancer – including pancreatic, lung, and oesophageal cancers, as well as brain tumours – have remained stubbornly resistant to dedicated efforts of scientists and doctors to improve the situation.

We believe the key to beating cancer is through research – to know what causes the disease in the first place, what drives it to grow and spread, and how best to target it with different treatments. And it’s by working harder to understand these cancers with poor survival rates that we can change the outlook for patients.

Now scientists at our Cambridge Research Institute and the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute have made an important step forward in understanding one of the most challenging forms of pancreatic cancer.

The researchers have hunted down a crucial gene involved in the disease and, publishing their results in the prestigious scientific journal Nature, have also revealed a potential way to target it.

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News digest – aspirin, tobacco profits, pancreatic cancer and more

Posted on March 24, 2012 by Oliver Childs

The latest cancer news

This week’s news digest includes our take on aspirin and cancer; a report about the huge profits the tobacco industry makes through selling it’s deadly product; encouraging early research to tackle pancreatic cancer; and a whole lot more.

Scroll through the stories below to find out the latest.

For now, we’re sticking with the Storify format. But please do send in your comments and feedback. In particular, if you prefer one format over another, let us know…
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Podcast: cancer genes, kids smoking, shunning sunbeds, and spotting the signs

Posted on March 22, 2012 by Kat Arney

Click on the logo to download the podcast

In this month’s podcast a landmark cancer study sheds light on tumour genes, and experts suggest that more breast cancer patients should have genetic tests.

New figures reveal worrying numbers of schoolchildren taking up smoking, and leading model agencies sign up to a no-sunbed policy.

Meanwhile, a new drug combo destroys pancreatic cancer in the lab, and our Delay Kills report shows that ignorance and fear are behind thousands of avoidable cancer deaths.

Listen now through the audio player below:

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Or click here to download the podcast as an mp3.

Also, the podcast is available on iTunes to subscribe and download for free.

Alternatively, go to the podcast page on our website, where you can hear the show directly through our own Flash player and explore previous shows in the archive. And there’s also a full transcript of the podcast available here.

We hope you enjoy it – please do let us know what you think of the podcast in the comments below, or email us at podcast@cancer.org.uk.

Kat

News digest – children who smoke, pancreatic cancer, abiraterone in Wales, and more

Posted on February 24, 2012 by Oliver Childs

Read the latest cancer research news

Here are the cancer stories that caught our eye this week. Click on links to read more in-depth coverage. Think we missed anything? Let us know in the comments below.

We released shocking new figures showing that more than 150,000 children every year take up smoking. We need to bring this number down, as we wrote on the blog.

One way to do this is to protect children from cigarette marketing. That’s why earlier in the week, we also responded to flawed claims that putting tobacco products into plain, standardised packaging will have no public health benefit. We want plain packaging to help stop the next generation from taking up smoking.

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Podcast: Immunotherapy, plain packaging, a boost for trials, and bacon

Posted on January 24, 2012 by Kat Arney

Click on the logo to download the podcast

In this month’s podcast there’s good news for UK cancer trials, as our network of Experimental Cancer Medicine Centres gets a £35 million funding boost, and we take a look at the latest research in understanding why some breast cancers are resistant to treatment.

The clock is ticking for the tobacco industry, as there are just 100 days until tobacco displays are removed in supermarkets, so we find out why this legislation is so important in the fight against cancer.

The immune system protects us against infection by bacteria and viruses, but can it be harnessed to fight cancer? We take a look at how far we’ve come in understanding the immune system and its role in cancer, and find out about the latest progress in immunotherapy – using a patient’s own immune system to fight tumours.

Plus, we discuss reports that processed meat – including bacon – increases pancreatic cancer risk, and get a glimpse of what 2012 holds for some of our top researchers.

Listen now through the audio player below:

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Or click here to download the podcast as an mp3.

Also, the podcast is available on iTunes to subscribe and download for free.

We hope you enjoy it – please do let us know what you think of the podcast in the comments below, or email us at podcast@cancer.org.uk.

Expert Opinion: Professor Nick Lemoine on pancreatic cancer

Posted on October 12, 2011 by Safia Danovi

Pancreatic cancer continues to be one of the hardest cancers to treat, so as part of our Research Strategy, we’ve pledged to boost research in this area with the ultimate aim of improving patients’ survival.

Professor Nick Lemoine, Director of the Barts Cancer Institute, is a world-leading expert in pancreatic cancer and as part of our ongoing Expert Opinion series, he shares his vision for a future in which we can beat this disease.

Professor Nick Lemoine is looking for new ways to detect and treat pancreatic cancer

Cancer Research UK: Why did you choose to focus on pancreatic cancer?

Nick Lemoine: It is a serious health problem across the western world and is becoming an increasing problem worldwide as we get more industrialised and people live longer.

Sadly, the 5-year survival rate hasn’t changed for the last 40 years, and that’s something that urgently needs addressing.

Cancer Research UK: What makes pancreatic cancer so difficult to treat?

Nick Lemoine: One significant problem with the pancreas is that it is deep within the body. You can’t see it, you can’t feel it and by the time symptoms or signs of the disease develop, surgery is no longer an option. And unfortunately, conventional chemotherapy drugs, which have largely been developed for other types of cancer, aren’t very effective, and neither is radiotherapy. So we need a new approach to the problem.

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