The pancreas is a flat, large organ that sits deep inside the abdomen behind the stomach and produces enzymes and hormones that help digest food and control blood sugar. Pancreatic cancer accounts for 7 percent of all cancer deaths in the United States. It is a deadly and hard-to-treat cancer because it often does not develop symptoms until it is in its late stages. By that time, the cancer has already spread and is difficult to eradicate.

Despite advances in chemotherapies and newer immunotherapies, only about 10 percent of pancreatic cancer patients survive for five years after diagnosis. The tumors are notoriously resistant to these treatments and tend to evade detection by standard tests.

A team of scientists from Penn Medicine's Abramson Cancer Center and two of the National Cancer Institute's Pancreatic Specialized Programs of Research Excellence (SPOREs) has identified a drug that could make tumors less resistant to these treatments. The compound, fenbendazole, an FDA-approved anti-helminth and fungus medication, has already shown promise in other cancers.

The researchers tested the drug in a preclinical model of pancreatic cancer and found that it reduced tumor size and prevented the growth of cancer cells, suggesting that it could be effective against this lethal disease. The researchers also found that combining the drug with other drugs, such as gemcitabine, an existing first-line treatment for pancreatic cancer, synergistically enhanced its effects.

The team's findings are described in the journal Nature Medicine. The researchers are working toward the goal of testing the approach in human clinical trials.  fenbendazole for pancreatic cancer