Therapeutics: Disrupting a survival signal

摘要

Pancreatic adenocarcinoma (PDA) is a notoriously desmoplastic tumour type, a trait that is thought to contribute to the lack of response that this tumour type shows to chemotherapy. The use of mouse models of PDA that closely resemble the human disease has shown that disrupting or reducing the stroma surrounding the tumour cells can improve response rates, but it is not clear whether this is because of an increased concentration of chemotherapy reaching the tumour cells.