11 July 2011

An international research team from Barts Cancer Institute (BCI) has found that Vitamin A could hold the key to beating pancreatic cancer which has the lowest survival rate of all cancers, claiming a quarter of a million lives worldwide each year.

The research showed that by raising levels of Vitamin A in the non-cancerous cells surrounding the malignant ones, the cells’ structure changed from facilitating to inhibiting cancer growth.

Mr Hemant Kocher, a consultant pancreatic and liver cancer surgeon at Barts and The London NHS Trust and researcher from BCI, led the team during a four year joint project with the University of Cambridge and the Hubrecht Institute in Holland.

Mr Kocher said: “The findings should lead to better survival rates and different treatment methods for pancreatic cancer, one of the deadliest types of cancer that annually kills almost 7,500 patients in the UK.”

Alex Ford, Chief Executive at Pancreatic Cancer UK, commented: “This research into the benefits of injecting Vitamin A into the healthy cells surrounding malignant ones is interesting.  Treatment options for pancreatic cancer patients are limited so Pancreatic Cancer UK welcomes any research into how the disease can be treated more effectively.

“Greater focus on the causes and most effective ways of diagnosing and treating pancreatic cancer is critical if we are going to improve poor survival rates for the disease, which have hardly improved over the past 40 years.” 

Mr Kocher explained his team took a very different approach and thought outside the box to demonstrate a new way of tackling cancer.

He said: “We found that paying attention to the non-cancerous tissue surrounding the seed of the cancer is as important as focusing on the cancer itself.

“Our research is based on the seed and soil theory for targeting cancer that was originally proposed by Barts surgeon Stephen Paget in 1889.

“Dr Paget studied why breast cancer prefers to spread into certain organs like liver and the bone over other areas of the body. He believed those organs provided a more fertile environment for the cancer to seed itself in.

“We took his theory a major step forward by testing the effect of Vitamin A – which influences the way cells behave – in samples from pancreatic cancer patients.”

Across the world 250,000 people die from pancreatic cancer every year including one of the disease’s highest-profile victims, film star Patrick Swayze, who died in 2009.

People with pancreatic cancer are deficient in many vitamins as the secretion of digestive juices from their pancreas and liver into their bowel is blocked. Patients are routinely very deficient in Vitamin A, a common vitamin found in a range of food sources such as carrots and broccoli.

Mr Kocher’s team were delighted to find restoring normal amounts of Vitamin A in non-cancerous cells (the soil) surrounding the cancer seed changed the cells from facilitating to inhibiting cancer growth.

“Vitamin A is just one example of an agent that can be added to successfully alter the nature of the soil,” Mr Kocher said.

“Other vitamins and medicines could further change the soil’s structure so this is really opening up a whole new field of research and possibilities.

“The finding also means it’s likely that different drugs will be used to treat pancreatic cancer as current chemotherapy only targets the actual cancer cells.

“Pancreatic cancer has some of the bleakest survival rates so new methods for treating this cancer are urgently required.

“Once diagnosed with pancreatic cancer most patients do not survive more than a year and less than 20% who have surgery and chemotherapy may survive more than two years. It is rare for pancreatic cancer patients to survive more than five years.

“Our research could also be applied to a wide variety of cancers including liver, colon and blood cancers so it’s a very significant milestone in the ongoing battle against this insidious disease.”

Further testing of the research will occur in clinical trials at Barts Cancer Centre.

ENDS

 Notes to editors

• Barts Cancer Centre offers the very latest cancer care with world-class facilities in a safe, welcoming and healing sanctuary in the heart of the City of London. Pioneering cancer research combines with leading-edge treatment and technologies to ensure patients are some of the first to benefit from new therapies.
• Barts Cancer Institute, by bringing together world‑class research and clinical delivery, aims to better understand cancer and so push forward laboratory discoveries into benefits for patients. This work continues a long tradition of discovery at Barts, where researchers pioneered the use of many surgical procedures and the use of radiotherapy to treat cancer. Its goal - to prevent cancer and develop better diagnostic techniques and treatments - will ultimately improve patient survival and enhance the quality of life for those with long-term disease.
• Visit www.pancreaticcancer.org.uk for more information on pancreatic cancer.