The SU2C–Lustgarten Foundation Pancreatic Cancer Interception Research Team aims to intercept pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma through a comprehensive approach that tests intensive preoperative treatments allowing doctors to achieve successful surgery and eradicate micrometastatic disease in more patients, and through the use of organoids to identify robust biomarkers of response to therapy.

Pancreatic cancer can sometimes be cured by surgery, but this is not always successful. Outcomes can be improved by intensive preoperative therapy with FOLFIRINOX, a chemotherapy regimen that combines the drugs 5-fluorouracil, leucovorin, irinotecan hydrochloride, and oxaliplatin. Through a clinical trial, the team is evaluating the addition of losartan, a drug that may enhance the efficacy of FOLFIRINOX. Furthermore, since preliminary data suggest that losartan therapy and radiation therapy alter the immune microenvironment, the team will add immunotherapy to determine if this strategy can provide additional benefit.

The team is also using organoids―tiny colonies of living cells obtained from patients’ tumors prior to starting treatment―to determine if they can be used to predict patients’ response to FOLFIRINOX and other therapies.

This Research Team is part of the SU2C Cancer Interception Initiative, an approach that looks for ways to actively intervene in the formation of the disease rather than treating it only after it is fully developed, and is part of the Pancreatic Cancer Collective portfolio of research.

This team is also part of the Pancreatic Cancer Collective portfolio of research.