Updated: 11/16/2012 5:46 PM KSTP.com By: Jennie Olson
University of Minnesota researchers have created a new drug that could defeat pancreatic cancer.
The drug, called Minnelide, is an injectable chemotherapy that targets tumor cells by inhibiting a protein that helps the tumor cells grow. It had very successful outcomes in a mouse model, and researchers expect to start testing on humans in 2013.
According to the U of M, pancreatic cancer is the most lethal of all cancers; the mean survival time following a diagnosis is six months.
The results of the research were published in the journal Science Translational Medicine.