‘Achilles heel’ of pancreatic cancer identified

A research team at Georgetown Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center reports that inhibiting a single protein completely shuts down growth of pancreatic cancer, a highly lethal disease with no effective therapy.

Their study, published online today in Science Signaling, demonstrates in animal models and in human cancer cells that while suppressing Yes-associated protein (Yap) did not prevent pancreatic cancer from first developing, it stopped any further growth.

“We believe this is the true Achilles heel of pancreatic cancer, because knocking out Yap crushes this really aggressive cancer. This appears to be the critical switch that promotes cancer growth and progression,” says the study’s senior investigator, Chunling Yi, PhD, an assistant professor of oncology at Georgetown Lombardi.

Yi added that because Yap is over-expressed in other cancers, such as lung, liver and stomach tumors, researchers are already working on small molecule drugs that will inhibit activity of the protein and its…