By Misti Crane
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH
New research led by Ohio State University scientists shows that tiny genes called microRNAs might lead to better ways to treat pancreatic cancer.
The microRNA look different in pancreatic cancer than they do in tissue from a healthy pancreas or one with pancreatitis, a chronic disease.
The research team also found that the genes might help predict how long a cancer patient will live. Most people who have pancreatic cancer die within two years.
The discoveries are preliminary and must be tested further before they will mean anything to people being treated for the disease.
Treatment based on these discoveries “is not decades away, but probably years away,” said Dr. Mark Bloomston, the Ohio State surgeon and assistant professor who led the study.
“If anything, what we've done has generated more questions than it has answers.”
The research is published May 1,2007 in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
