2023 New Treatment Grant - Prof Ricky Johnstone

Project Summary

People with pancreatic cancer are presented with treatment options that have limited efficacy and severe side-effects, with less than 1 in 9 patients surviving more than 5-years after their diagnosis, and worse prognoses for those diagnosed with late-stage disease. While there are now new drugs that have been specifically designed to block the most-important pancreatic cancer protein (KRAS), how successful these drugs will be in the long-term is not yet known. This project will test the response of human pancreatic cancer cells to a group of drugs that block a process called ‘transcription’ that is universally disrupted in cancer. It will be investigated if: • Pancreatic cancer cell growth and survival can be blocked by anti-transcription drugs used by themselves, and • If anti-transcription drugs can be used in combination with anti-KRAS drugs to better block pancreatic cancer growth and survival, using lower doses (thereby reducing side-effects). We believe that the data generated in this grant will provide strong evidence to promote the assessment of anti-transcription drugs for pancreatic cancer patients in clinical trials. It is anticipated that anti-transcription drugs are a new therapeutic direction that can both extend the lifespan, and improve quality-of-life, of people living with pancreatic cancer.