TAMPA, FL—Pancreatic cancer, acknowledged as the most fatal cancer with no known effective treatment, requires a radical new therapy. Now, researchers at Northwestern University in Chicago think they have come up with one. They presented for the first time a promising new approach in the form of gold nanoparticles.

Traditional attempts to treat this cancer include some combination of chemo therapy, radiation therapy, and/or surgery. However, none of these methods result in effective treatment. “This cancer is the kiss of death,” said Reed A. Omary, MD, who is a professor of radiology and biomedical engineering at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, Chicago. “The median survival is less than 6 months, and the patients die on schedule.”

So, he and his colleagues have come up with a new treatment they call “nanoembolization.” It involves extremely tiny particles made out of gold with cancerkilling agents attached to them. These nanoparticles, which measure only 13 nanometers in diameter, are so small that 8000 of them could be strung together and still occupy less than the width of a single human hair.

“As the current treatments for pancreatic cancer offer minimal benefit, entirely new approaches are needed. We’ve developed a radically different approach that might be able to overcome some of the obstacles that have hampered previous therapies for pancreatic cancer,” said Omary. “Using nanoembolization, we dramatically increased the concentration of the nano particles in the tumor by 55 times over traditional methods that use a vein (such as at the elbow). That’s a massive improvement and a promising discovery for this dreadful disease.”

He noted that pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma is the most common typeof pancreatic cancer and carries the worst prognosis of any cancer, even when diagnosed early. In 2009, it was estimated that more than 42,000 individuals, typically over the age of 60, were diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, making it the fourth leading cause of cancer death in the United States.

A major reason that current pancreatic cancer treatments do not work is that scar tissue develops around the cancer. The scar tissue blocks cancerkilling drugs from entering the tumor. Omary and his colleagues are using a catheter to deliver the gold nanoparticles directly to the tumor. The catheter is placed into an artery near the groin and navigated through blood vessels to the site of the tumor, all without surgery. The direct catheter injections have the potential to reduce side effects, such as vomiting and hair loss, that may be seen with traditional chemotherapy.

“Researchers have been using the same toolbox for a long time without any benefit. It’s time for us to apply some high-tech tools to treat pancreatic cancer,” said Omary. Clinical trials are already under way using nanoparticles for other types of cancer. Omary told the Journal of Multidisciplinary Cancer Care that it may be 24 to 36 months before pancreatic cancer patients can be referred for clinical trials. However, he said research is going well, and preclinical and animal trials have been very promising. Omary said now for the first time oncology team members have some positive news they can give patients with pancreatic cancer. Although this approach is not yet readily available, it does offer hope for the future. Omary said only approximately 5% of patients diagnosed with pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma survive for 5 years.