Vaccine to Block Digestive Hormone May Slow Growth of Pancreatic Cancer

Article title: "Vaccine against gastrin, polyclonal antibody stimulator, decreases pancreatic cancer metastases"

Authors: Nicholas Osborne, Rebecca Sundseth, Martha D. Gay, Hong P. Cao, Robin D. Tucker, Sandeep Nadella, Shangzi Wang, Xunxian Liu, Alexander Kroemer, Lynda Sutton, Allen Cato, Jill P. Smith

From the authors: "Survival from advanced pancreatic cancer is poor, in part due to dense fibrosis of the tumor microenvironment, increased number of [tumor-promoting] polarized macrophages that promote angiogenesis and invasion and lack of ‘target-specific’ therapy. Herein, we report that a tumor vaccine that selectively targets gastrin, decreases pancreatic cancer growth and metastases. Furthermore, the gastrin vaccine, [polyclonal antibody stimulator], alters the tumor microenvironment rendering it more responsive to immunotherapy with a PD-1 immune checkpoint antibody." 

This study is highlighted as one of October’s “best of the best” as part of the American Physiological Society’s APSselect program.