Pancreatic Cancer Treatment with Novel ADC Immunotherapy Strategy

Release Date: 14-Nov-2020

Among all the cancer types that have been diagnosed and treated, pancreatic cancer is one of the most difficult cancer to treat as the delivery of the drugs is very complex when compared with other cancers. But a group of researchers from Boston’s Hospital are now more inclined towards the development of a combination treatment that could make the drug penetrate the pancreatic cancer cells easily. The group of researchers have developed an antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) having the capability to bind to ICAM1 which is a molecule/protein present on the surface of pancreatic tumor cells.

The researchers initiated the respective study by identifying proteins that could serve as a good binding site for the drug. Therefore, the researchers after certain assays and experiments found ICAM1 to be an efficient target. It is witnessed that the protein molecule targeted in the respective study facilitated some of the immune response and they also found that this respective protein molecule was present abundantly in majority of the cancer types such as melanoma and triple-negative breast cancer.

The drug compound that was selected in the clinical research study was cancer-killing drug used in Roche’s ADC Kadcyla for HER2-positive breast cancer. Another drug compound that was selected was Gemzar which is a chemotherapy drug that’s typically given as a first-line treatment for pancreatic cancer. DM-ICAM1 combination was tested two other treatments and a placebo over a 14-week treatment period. It was estimated by the researchers that ICAM1 gets expressed at high level in case of pancreatic cancer. MRI-based imaging technique was used to confirm the presence of ICAM1 surface protein on the pancreatic cancer cells. It is believed that the clinical outcome of such precised study could be responsible for transforming the entire pancreatic cancer therapeutics market.