Researchers identify potential new combination treatment for pancreatic cancer

Researchers from UCLA's Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center have identified a possible new therapeutic strategy using two types of drug inhibitors at once to treat one of the world's deadliest cancers. The combination approach uses one drug that inhibits the process—known as lysosome—that allows cancer cells to recycle essential nutrients to survive, and another drug that blocks the pathway used to repair DNA. Researchers found the approach to be promising after testing it on pancreatic cancer cells and mice in the laboratory. Pancreatic cancer, which is the third leading cause of cancer-related deaths in the United States, is known to be highly resistant to treatments. The lack of effective treatments also suggests there is an inadequate understanding of the biologic complexity of the disease and the mechanisms to explain why this type of cancer often becomes resistant to therapies that work in treating other types of cancers. Because of these limitations, researchers have sought to better understand how the cancer cell pathways work to help identify potential new targets for therapies. Pancreatic cancer cells rely on lysosome-dependent pathways, which are an essential component of autophagy, where cancer cells break down and recycle some of their own components for fuel. Understanding the underlying mechanism and impact of inhibiting this pathway can lead to new treatment strategies for the disease.