An international project assisted by researchers from The University of Western Australia has offered new hope to patients with pancreatic cancer.

While many advances have been made in other types of cancer, pancreatic cancer remains largely incurable, with survival rates less than five per cent five years after diagnosis.

The Australian Pancreatic Genome Initiative (APGI), funded by the NHMRC and led by a team at the Garvan Institute and Kinghorn Cancer Centre in Sydney, has led an international program aimed at changing this.

The research allowed those cancers to be further divided into four categories, one of which demonstrated high amounts of genomic instability – a trait which ironically may also render them susceptible to treatments which work through DNA repair mechanisms.

Several of the cancers were also found to have mutations amenable to treatment with drugs used for other cancers, and not at present for pancreatic cancer. In addition, two novel gene mutations were observed which may offer leads for new approaches to treatment.

"This project depends upon getting access to high quality specimens that are ethically obtained," said colleague Nikolajs Zeps of UWA's School of Surgery and St John of God Subiaco Hospital. "Working closely with our colleagues in surgery, pathology and medical oncology, we have not only supported this project but have established pathways that will benefit people who suffer from other cancers."

He said the study was a good illustration of the power of biobanks linked to genomic sequencing.

The next steps will be to use these genetic signatures as the basis for new clinical trials aimed at alleviating the suffering from this cancer.

The paper, Whole Genome Sequencing Redefines the Mutational Landscape of Pancreatic Cancer, was published February 27 in Nature.

(Source: University of Western Australia)