2025 New Treatment Innovation - A/Prof Walter Fairlie

Cancer of the pancreas is one of the most challenging cancers to treat. One reason is that pancreatic cancer cells have built-in mechanisms that enable them to survive even the strongest treatments. A major part of their defence is a set of special "pro-survival proteins" that allow cancer cells to escape being destroyed by many standard drugs used in cancer treatment.

To overcome this major issue, our research focuses on a new type of drug called "BH3-mimetics". These drugs are designed to block the cancer's pro-survival proteins, allowing treatments to work more effectively. We believe that by combining BH3- mimetics with other drugs, we can make even weak treatments much more powerful against pancreatic cancer.

We recently performed a large laboratory study where we tested over 2700 drug combinations in three cell types associated with pancreatic cancer (8100 treatments in total). Each combination paired a BH3-mimetic with a well-studied medicine already used in patients. This revealed many promising drug combinations that were much more effective together than either drug alone.

Our proposed project now aims to find the best combinations from this list of leads. Using computer tools, including artificial intelligence, together with laboratory-based studies, we will prioritise the drug pairs likely to kill pancreatic cancer cells most effectively. We will then test these combinations in laboratory models that are similar to real pancreatic tumours from patients. The goal is to identify new and effective drug combinations that can move quickly into further animal testing and ultimately into patients. By focusing on drugs that are already approved for use in patients, our research has the potential to accelerate the development of more effective therapies for people with pancreatic cancer.