Grant: Operating Grant

Pancreatic cancer is the most deadly solid organ tumor with a typical life expectancy of 3-6 months after diagnosis. Prognosis is poor because this malignancy is often detected too late for surgery to be helpful and is unresponsive to current chemotherapy and radiation therapy. Combination treatment regimens using newly available drugs plus chemotherapy that have been shown to prolong survival in other cancers are not effective in pancreatic cancer. Thus, there is a dire need to understand why pancreatic cancer progresses so rapidly, and why it is unresponsive to chemotherapy. We recently observed very high levels of a molecule called insulin-like growth factor-2 mRNA binding protein 3 (IMP3) in pancreatic cancer tissues from 128 patients but not in normal pancreas tissues. This observation leads us to think that IMP3 may be important in promoting pancreatic cancer growth, metastasis, and chemotherapy resistance. The high level expression of IMP3 in only cancer but not in normal tissues also makes it a potential drug target. Our research proposal will first use molecular biology methods to study the function of IMP3 in pancreatic cancer. We will then use non-invasive imaging technologies to determine whether reducing the levels of IMP3 suppresses pancreatic cancer growth and/or renders pancreatic cancer responsive to chemotherapy again. Positive findings from our research will lead to the development of more effective therapeutic strategies for pancreatic cancer to be tested in clinical trials.