Thursday, August 11, 2011

Israel Advances Fight Against Pancreatic Cancer

Pancreatic cancer is known as a fast spreading and aggressive disease

Slowing pancreatic cancer

Israeli researchers have discovered that a protein known to retard the aging process also seems to prevent the growth of pancreatic cancer. If it could be produced commercially without significant side effects, this substance could provide a needed weapon against this and other fast-growing cancers.

In the United States, an estimated 37,660 people will die of pancreatic cancer this year.

The scientists noticed that healthy pancreatic cells contain klotho, but cancerous cells do not. When they injected the cancerous mice with klotho, they discovered that it not only prevented the cancer from spreading, but actually caused tumors to shrink.

"Within a week or two after the protein was injected, the [cancerous] growths stopped spreading and began to shrink," said lead researcher Dr. Ido Wolf.
[ISRAEL21c]
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2 comments:

LHwrites said...

Exciting stuff! Klotho is very interesting but there are some concerns that may make it take a while before it will be known how safe a therapy it can provide.

Bruce said...

Indeed...i enjoyed hearing about how this could apply to more than one cancer.