Family Helps Pancreatic Cancer Study
SEATTLE – A Washington state family that has lost nine members to pancreatic cancer is helping researchers better understand the disease. After 10 years research, scientists at the University of Washington identified a gene important in the inherited form of pancreatic cancer – one of the deadliest forms. The finding could help diagnose the disease earlier and treat it.
"I think it will play a major role in understanding of the disease," said Dr. Teri Brentnall, a UW associate professor of gastroenterology and senior researcher. "Now we have to dig to find out more about how the cancer happens."
Cancer of the pancreas is rare, but it’s the third-leading cause of cancer death among people age 40 to 59. It usually is discovered after spreading to other parts of the body.
In the U.S., about 33,700 people are diagnosed with the disease annually, and 32,000 die, including about 700 in Washington state. According to the American Cancer Society, only about 5 percent nationally live longer than five years.
The Northwest family involved in the UW study has lost nine relatives over four generations to pancreatic cancer. Another nine have had early signs of the disease.
By analyzing the family, researchers in 2002 were able to identify the general region of the gene "palladin," then discovered its exact location several months ago. Brentnall, UW co-lead author Ru Chen and colleagues at four other medical centers publicly reported the discovery Tuesday in an online journal published by the Public Library of Science Medicine.
"I feel really good that my family has not suffered in vain. Something has been accomplished from their contribution," said Ryan Chappell, 21, of Lacey, whose father, David, died when Ryan was 7, as well as his grandfather, three uncles and several cousins.
Three years after his father’s death, Chappell was diagnosed with diabetes – a sign that his pancreas was failing. Surgeons removed his pancreas after tests showed his was close to becoming cancerous.
He hopes the discovery of the gene will help others with the cancer.
"Maybe it will help break the curses in their families, too," he said.
Palladin makes a protein for the skeleton of pancreas cells, helping maintain their shape and anchoring them in the organ. The gene mutated and produced higher-than-usual amounts of the protein in cancer patients from Chappell’s family, researchers found. The protein also is misshapen in the cells, allowing them to break free and move into other parts of the body.
"They’re like a tumbleweed, rolling away," Brentnall said. "They migrate 50 percent faster than other cells. The fact that they move like that is a key feature in cancer."
In patients with no family history of the disease, Brentnall and her colleagues found the gene, although not mutated, produced higher-than-usual amounts of the palladin protein. Only 10 percent of pancreatic-cancer cases are thought to be inherited.
To rule out the possibility that the mutated gene is unique to Chappell’s family, the research needs to be replicated in families that don’t have such a history of pancreatic cancer, said Dr. James Abbruzzese, a prominent gastrointestinal cancer researcher from the University of Texas.
Scientists hope to develop a diagnostic test to find excess amounts of the protein in blood early in the disease. They also want to develop a drug that inhibits the protein and prevents the cancer cells from moving.
"We hope to exploit the palladin gene in any way we can," Brentnall said.
Other institutions that participated in the research were the University of Pittsburgh, Cleveland Clinic, University of North Carolina and the London School of Medicine and Dentistry.