Pancreatic cancer is the most devastating of all cancers with an extremely poor prognosis. In US alone, over 50 000 new cases of pancreatic cancer are reported annually, and about the same number succumb to it, making pancreatic cancer the third most common cause of cancer deaths. Most patients with pancreatic cancer present with advanced disease, which cannot be resected surgically, and for these patients chemotherapy is the only option. Even patients who undergo resection require adjuvant therapy to decrease the risk of recurrence. Since the 1950s, a variety of different agents, like antimetabolites, nucleoside analogs, and DNA intercalating compounds, have been used against pancreatic cancer, alone or in combination, with little improvement in the survival statistics. The current article reviews the evolution of chemotherapy for pancreatic cancer, and discusses some novel therapeutic options that are emerging in recent times, with special emphasis on Minnelide, a novel HSP70 inhibitor, which is currently in clinical trials.
Approaches towards developing therapies for pancreatic cancer have evolved tremendously over the past decade. Research has shown that apart from the inherent drug resistance, drug delivery to pancreatic cancer has also posed a major challenge. The extensive desmoplastic stroma of pancreatic cancer is believed to create inordinately high interstitial fluid pressures leading to vascular collapse and substantial barrier to perfusion of chemotherapeutics, thus creating an additional layer of protection for pancreatic cancer. Recent research thus is focused not only on understanding the biology and developing strategies to target cancer cells, but also is targeted towards the depletion of stroma in order to ensure better delivery of chemotherapeutic compounds to the tumor.
The current article describes the novel therapies that are constantly being evaluated to address and overcome the challenges that make pancreatic cancer a difficult disease to treat.
Pharmacology, Toxicology and Pharmaceutical Science
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3%
Agricultural and Biological Sciences
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3%
Other
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Unknown
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Attention Score in Context
Attention Score in Context
This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 4. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 01 October 2020.
All research outputs
#11,472,523
of 34,410,798 outputs
Outputs from Current opinion in gastroenterology
#398
of 1,144 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#120,244
of 337,884 outputs
Outputs of similar age from Current opinion in gastroenterology
#1
of 14 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 34,410,798 research outputs across all sources so far. This one has received more attention than most of these and is in the 65th percentile.
So far Altmetric has tracked 1,144 research outputs from this source. They typically receive more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 8.0. This one has gotten more attention than average, scoring higher than 61% of its peers.
Older research outputs will score higher simply because they've had more time to accumulate mentions. To account for age we can compare this Altmetric Attention Score to the 337,884 tracked outputs that were published within six weeks on either side of this one in any source. This one has gotten more attention than average, scoring higher than 62% of its contemporaries.
We're also able to compare this research output to 14 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one has done well, scoring higher than 85% of its contemporaries.
