Conan Kinsey, MD, PhD

Overview

Aim: Prevention / Metabolism

Pancreatic cancer is set to become the 2nd most common form of cancer death in the next 5-10 years. Although advances are being made in the detection and treatment of pancreatic cancer once it has developed, it is still challenging to treat once it has become established. A key driver of pancreatic cancer is a mutation in a gene called KRAS, which is involved in cell growth and survival and is the first gene mutation acquired by cells on their way to becoming pancreatic cancer cells in many cases. Recent groundbreaking research has allowed us to block or inhibit the mutated KRAS protein. While KRAS inhibitors show promise in early studies, developing effective treatments is challenging due to the complexity of the KRAS mutation and its role in normal cell function.

Additionally, because of additional cancer-causing mutations, pancreatic cancer can further mutate to become resistant to KRAS inhibitors. In this proposal, we will treat these early stages of pancreatic cancer formation with KRAS inhibitors in pre-clinical mouse models to determine if we can prevent pancreatic cancer before additional mutations occur. This could lead to ground-breaking clinical trials in which patients who are at a high risk of developing pancreatic cancer could be treated with KRAS inhibitors and never develop pancreatic cancer.