Scientists in Toronto have created a tiny, living 3-D organ model of pancreatic ducts to help them conduct research on pancreatic cancer, one of the deadliest and least understood of all cancers. The 3-D organ model could lead to new ways to detect and treat pancreatic cancer, which has a ven/ poor survival rate with only about six per cent of patients surviving five years after diagnosis. Using thousands of the tiny 3-D models in petri dishes in his lab, Dr Muthuswamy and his team at Toronto's Princess Margaret Hospital will use genetic manipulation to recreate the events that lead to cancer formation in the pancreas. The researchers will add genes, hormones, and other agents to see what causes the cells to mutate into cancerous lesions. In patients, unfortunately, these lesions progress very quickly to late stage pancreatic cahcer.
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