Detecting pancreatic cancer earlier

TheoryLab

Pancreatic cancer is a terrible disease. “The 5-year relative survival rate for all stages combined is 10%,” according to Cancer Facts & Figures 2021. “Even for the small percentage (11%) of people diagnosed with local disease, the 5-year survival rate is only 39%.*” But cancer researchers are learning more every day about how to find pancreatic cancer early and develop targeted therapies. Laura D. Wood, MD, PhD, a clinician scientist at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, joined the podcast to explain why pancreatic cancer is difficult to detect early and how her team is approaching the problem. 2:34 – Laura D. Wood, MD, PhD is an Associate Professor in the Department of Pathology and Director of GI Pathology in the Division of Gastrointestinal and Liver Pathology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. And she’s an American Cancer Society Research Scholar. 3:32 – As a graduate student she was among the first in the world to sequence the whole exomes of human tumors. What are whole exomes? 5:38 – Why this accomplishment was important and how much technology has advanced since then 9:03 – How a more complete picture of the cancer genome changes our understanding of that cancer 13:37 – Why early detection of pancreatic cancer is such a clinical challenge 17:13 – “It’s actually on course to be the 2nd-leadest cause of cancer death within a few years” 21:15 – What she’s learned from genetics about the development of precancerous lesions in the pancreas 24:56 – How it’s different from colorectal cancer screening 26:37 – How can we tell which lesions are going to turn into cancer? 29:36 – On growing mini-tumors in fancy science jello to understand cancer cell invasion 31:37 – How she is studying pancreatic cancer from both ends of the spectrum 33:01 – How her clinical training and knowledge of genetics and morphology helps her think about what research questions matter to cancer patients 34:56 – Progress she hopes to see in the pancreatic cancer research field in the next 5 years 36:54 – A message she’d like to share with cancer patients, survivors, and caregivers *Source: https://www.cancer.org/content/dam/cancer-org/research/cancer-facts-and-statistics/annual-cancer-facts-and-figures/2021/cancer-facts-and-figures-2021.pdf