Scientists discover reason behind pancreatic cancer spreading

NEW YORK — Scientists at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory have discovered a key biological mechanism that drives the spread of pancreatic cancer and helps explain why one of the most common forms of the disease is so deadly.

The researchers, in the just-released issue of the journal Cell, describe how working with tiny pancreatic organoids — miniature living models of the pancreas — led to their significant step in understanding DNA sequences that underlie the spread of pancreatic ductal carcinoma.

Cancer of the pancreas has the reputation of being one of the most lethal malignancies because of its overwhelming tendency to metastasize, spreading to sites beyond the gland itself, researchers said.

Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory scientists in the lab of Dr. David Tuveson, director of cancer therapeutics, unmasked one of the cancer’s longestheld secrets: Pancreatic cancer spreads because metastatic cells carry short sequences of DNA, called enhancers, that drive the cancer’s spread.

These DNA enhancers are not evident in “primary” pancreatic tumor cells, which make up the cancer in its earliest stages of evolution.

These enhancers, the scientists found, actively direct the cancer’s spread beyond the pancreas.

The miniature models allow researchers to understand why the cancer forms in the first place and how it receives genetic messages to spread.