Pancreatic cancer is a disease that raise in the pancreas, which is a gland that produces digestive juices and hormones that regulate blood sugar. Approximately 85% of all cancerous tumors of the pancreas are adenocarcinomas. Pancreatic adenocarcinoma has poor prognis: the five-year survival rate is only 5 percent, making pancreatic adenocarcinoma the 4th leading cause of cancer deaths in the US. A transcription factor PDX1 (pancreatic and duodenal homeobox 1) is necessary for pancreatic development. It has different roles in different stages of pancreatic cancer: in healthy cells it inhibits cancer; once a tumor forms it contributes to cancer growth while preventing it from becoming too aggressive. Researchers from University of California at San Francisco, University of Michigan, University of Glasgow, Stony Brook University and Vanderbilt University now identified a critical role for PDX1 in maintaining acinar cell identity, thus resisting the formation of pancreatic intraepithelial neoplasia (PanIN)-derived pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma. PDX1 plays a role in a wound-healing process that is important for tissue regeneration and cell function maintainance. When a cell becomes a malignant cell, PDX1 drives the growth of cancer. This suggesting that inhibiting this protein may inhibit cancer growth. The results offer insight into the complexity of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma and suggests PDX1 as potential target to treat it. The study appears in Genes and Development. Howard C. Crawford is the lead researcher and Nilotpal Roy is the first author. Cusabio offers PDX1 protein and FITC conjugated antibody.
