Why do patients with gastric or pancreatic cancer live longer when they are treated at cancer centers or high-volume hospitals than patients treated at low-volume or community hospitals?

Treating pancreatic cancer with a combination of chemotherapy, biotherapy and radiotherapy prior to surgery is safe and may be beneficial for patients, according to a University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute (UPCI) study presented at the 44th annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) in Chicago.

OHSU pancreatic cancer expert Brett Sheppard, M.D., and colleagues in the OHSU Oregon Stem Cell Center, have developed antibodies that recognize pancreatic cancer; Sheppard is presenting these findings this week during Digestive Disease Week in San Diego

Investigators have developed antibodies that recognize pancreatic cancer. The antibodies were developed through a technique of injecting normal pancreas cells into mice.

In patients who are at very high risk of inheriting pancreatic cancer, surveillance can be effective if performed by a team of experienced specialists. The findings are important because at least 10 percent of pancreatic cancer is inherited and it is a lethal disease that is often not detected until it is too late, since the pancreas is not easily sampled, looked at or felt.

New research will be presented today at Digestive Disease Week® 2008 (DDW®) to showcase innovative methods to better understand the risk factors for and improve earlier detection of pancreatic cancer.

When surgeons need to remove part of the pancreas, performing the operation with minimally invasive techniques offers patients a shorter hospital stay and fewer complications, researchers have concluded.

Laboratory studies by University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) researchers have shown that the drug triphendiol (NV-196) causes cell death in pancreatic and bile duct cancer cell lines, slows tumor growth and sensitizes tumors to chemotherapy treatments.

Prevention of weight gain with a restricted calorie diet sharply reduced the development of pancreatic lesions that lead to cancer in preclinical research reported today by researchers from The University of Texas at Austin and The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center at the American Association for Cancer Research annual meeting.

Researchers at the Kimmel Cancer Center at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia are inching closer to understanding how common blood pressure medications might help prevent the spread of pancreatic cancer. They have found in the laboratory that one type of pressure-lowering drug called an angiotensin receptor blocker inhibits pancreatic cancer cell growth and causes cell death.

Rochester researchers showed for the first time that a natural antioxidant found in grape skins and red wine can help destroy pancreatic cancer cells by reaching to the cell's core energy source, or mitochondria, and crippling its function. The study is published in the March edition of the journal, Advances in Experimental Medicine and Biology.

The article published in volume 14 issue 6 of World Journal of Gastroenterology reports on one patient who presented to Dr Cosimo Sperti of University of Padua, Padova, Italy, in 2001 after an exploratory laparotomy performed in another hospital for an unresectable pancreatic cystic mass that had infiltrated the portal vein.