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Well .. yeah it is. Some good news from the under funded research at last. Been too long.
Does it help with type 2 diabetes?
No, it doesn't.
From the article:
However, pancreatic cell transplantation could not help treat patients with type 2 diabetes. In this form of the disease, patients have fully functional beta cells but cells throughout their body become resistant to insulin.
It's because I & II are fundamentally different in how they are even though they cause the same problem.
It's very sad, I know a couple typeIIs and they could really use a break. Are you type II?
University of Pennsylvania scientists have found a novel way of treating pancreatic cancer which involves attacking the dense tissue surrounding the cancer. Researchers say the new approach shows promise in battling one of the most stubborn of all cancers. Cancer of the pancreas is one of the deadliest forms of the disease. It is almost always fatal, and current treatments are of little help. In an effort to find something better, the Pennsylvania researchers developed an antibody that would activate the patient's own immune system to attack the cancer, much like a vaccine.
But lead author Robert Vonderheide says what happened was unexpected. Instead of attacking the tumor itself, he says the immune system targeted what's called the scaffold, the dense tissue surrounding the cancer. "And it's a bit like attacking a brick wall by dissolving the mortar in the brick wall without actually having to bash down the bricks themselves. The immune system was able to eat away at this tissue surrounding the cancer, and the cancer really fell apart in the face of that."
Vonderheide and his colleagues tried the approach on a small number of human patients, just 21. None of them were "cured" of the disease, but several had promising changes, such as reductions in tumor size. To better understand what was happening in the human patients, the researchers turned to laboratory mice that had been genetically engineered to develop pancreatic cancer. "And we were able to test this antibody in these mice to understand exactly how it was that their immune system is being turned on," he says. "And it was the insights that we were able to gather in this regard in the laboratory that allowed us to understand what was happening in our patients."
Vonderheide says the information could help scientists working on new drugs for cancer patients. "What's important about that is we now have this tool, this ability to test our ideas in the mice with pancreatic cancer, and only pick those therapies that are successful in the mice before bringing any other therapy forward to patients." The study by Robert Vonderheide and his colleagues is published in the journal Science.
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A trial has begun on a vaccine treating pancreatic cancer, which has the lowest survival rate of all common cancers. More than 1,000 patients with advanced pancreatic cancer have joined the TeloVac trial at 53 UK hospitals. Vaccines are usually associated with preventing infections, but this is part of a new approach to try to stimulate the immune system to fight cancer. The trial involves regular doses of vaccine together with chemotherapy and compares this with chemotherapy alone.
The vaccine contains small sections of a protein, telomerase, which is over-produced by cancer cells. The aim is to stimulate the immune system to recognise the telomerase which sits on the surface of the cancer cells and to target the tumour. Professor John Neoptolemos from Royal Liverpool University Hospital, who is helping to co-ordinate the trial, said: "The problem is tumours are clever and are able to turn the immune cells into traitors which help to guard the tumour. "The vaccine takes away the masking effect of the tumour."
Pancreatic cancer has the worst survival rate of all common cancers. Just three in 100 patients survive the disease for five years or more. Rhona Longworth, 43, who was diagnosed with the cancer in February, said: "For someone who's never smoked and hardly ever drank, it was a big shock. "I just hope the vaccine works and I'm one person who goes on to live a happy, healthy life after this." Joan Roberts, 69, said the vaccine appeared to have few side effects and she is keeping her fingers crossed about the impact on her cancer. "I'm pleased that it's stable and it hasn't got any bigger. You've got to remain positive," she said.
More BBC News - TeloVac pancreatic cancer vaccine trial launched in UK
Sitting in the first lady's box caps off a banner year for Jack Andraka. The 16-year-old from Crownsville, Maryland, won the grand prize at the 2012 Intel International Science and Engineering Fair, the largest high school science competition in the world. He is the youngest-ever recipient of the $75,000 award, beating out 1,500 students from 70 countries. Pancreatic cancer is one of the deadliest forms of cancer, which Jack became aware of after losing a close family friend to the disease. I went on the Internet and I found that 85 percent of all pancreatic cancers are diagnosed late, when someone has less than a two percent chance of survival," he says, "and I was thinking, Thats not right. We should be able to do something.
He also learned people with pancreatic cancer have elevated levels of a protein called mesothelin in their bloodstream, and that early detection is key to increasing the chances of surviving the disease. "One of the most important things about it is that it's found in the earliest stage of the disease when you have close to 100 percent chance of survival," Jack says. After gaining permission to work in a lab at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Andraka developed a simple paper sensor - incorporating a novel mesh of tiny carbon nanotubes and antibodies- which can detect the mesothelin in a single drop of blood, signaling the presence of pancreatic cancer at its earliest stages.
Jack Andraka, then 15, reacts to winning the 2012 Intel International Science and Engineering Fair, for inventing a test which detects pancreatic cancer in its earliest stages.
His test has proven accurate 90 percent of the time and is 100 times more sensitive than current tests. The sensor is...168 times faster and 26,000 times less expensive," Jack says. "It costs three cents per test, only five minutes to run. [The] urine or blood sample requires one-sixth of a drop. Jack's achievement would not have been possible without Dr. Anirban Maitra, professor of Pathology and Oncology at Johns Hopkins University, and the only person out of 200 researchers to respond favorably to Jack's emails describing his project. I have to admit I was very surprised that this was a 15-year-old writing this and I have to admit my curiosity was piqued," Maitra says. "I wanted to meet this gifted young man and see what he wanted to talk about and so I called him over for an interview. Hes very impressive.
Maitra gave Andraka a corner of his lab, where he worked for seven months completing his project. I think a lot of credit also goes to his parents, who throughout his childhood immersed him and his brother in scientific magazines and encouraged them to read, Maitra says. Jack has patented his pancreatic cancer sensor, and is talking with companies about developing it into a simple, over-the-counter test, which could eventually provide life-saving early detection of other types of cancer as well. Whatever happens, his mentor believes Jack Andraka's name is one we'll be hearing again over the next 10 to 20 years. "If hes done what hes done at 15, who knows what hell do when hes 25 or 35," Maitra says. "But wherever hell end up, hell have a positive impact. I have no doubts about that. Hes a very special kid.
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