This week, Bobbi Conner talks with Dr. William Hawkins about recent advances in pancreatic cancer treatment. Dr. Hawkins is a surgical oncologist and researcher at MUSC Hollings Cancer Center, and his research focuses on improving outcomes for pancreatic cancer patients.
TRANSCRIPT:
Conner: I'm Bobbi Conner for South Carolina Public Radio with Health Focus here at the radio studio for the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston. Pancreatic cancer is notoriously difficult to treat, in part because it lacks symptoms in the early stages, and therefore cancer often has spread to other organs by the time of diagnosis. Doctor William Hawkins is here to talk about recent breakthroughs in treating pancreatic cancer. Doctor Hawkins is a surgical oncologist and a researcher at MUSC Hollings Cancer Center. His research focuses on improving outcomes for pancreatic cancer patients. Doctor Hawkins, tell us about pancreatic cancer.
Dr. Hawkins: So, pancreas cancer is a particularly challenging cancer for some of the reasons you outlined. But for some additional reasons as well, including it has a immune suppressive tumor microenvironment, meaning the immune system doesn't see it as well as it sees other cancers like melanoma, for example. And it also has some metabolic changes that make it difficult to treat. So, it has been a challenging cancer, but we are making significant breakthroughs in progress.
Conner: I understand there's a lot of excitement related to the development of new treatments for pancreatic cancer. Tell us about that.
Dr. Hawkins: Yeah. The hottest new treatment is what's called a KRAS inhibitor. This is a change in the genetics of pancreatic cancer that has been particularly vexing to our community. We've been trying, at the basic science level, to make a drug against this particular mutation for about 20 years. And we've finally got one that works with several more in the pipeline. And so, we recently had a big clinical trial that demonstrated a doubling in survival in metastatic patients, meaning they live twice as long as they were expected to live with this new drug.
Conner: And tell us more about the doubling of expected survival.
Dr. Hawkins: So doubling is an interesting thing. This has been tested in the third line after everything else has failed, when patients were expected to live at most six months and we get another six months out of that. That doesn't mean we've cured anybody. We still have a lot more work to do.
Conner: I understand customized vaccines are being studied as well for patients with pancreatic cancer. Tell us about this research.
Dr. Hawkins: Yes, this is exciting to me. This is an area that I focus on. The way this works is that we take the sample from your blood and we sequence your genetic sequence. Then we take a sample from the tumor and we sequence the genetics of the tumor. We match them up using computers to find the small differences that make the cancer, its cancer. Then we prepare a customized vaccine against what makes your cancer a cancer and present that to you like you would present a childhood vaccine with adjuvants, to try to get your body to help us fight your cancer. And this has shown incredible promise as well.
Conner: What other ongoing research related to pancreatic cancer do you think holds promise?
Dr. Hawkins: Yeah, this is a very exciting time in pancreas cancer. There's been a recent study that showed artificial intelligence behind the scenes, can maybe help us with early detection of pancreatic cancer, picking it up before human eyes can. There's genetic blood tests that are coming along that we're currently and actively studying that may be screening tests you can get from your primary doctor, so we can find it earlier when it's more treatable. So, there's a lot going on in pancreas cancer, sort of capitalizing on the last 20 years of science. But this is an exciting time for us in this field.
Conner: Doctor Hawkins, thanks for talking with us about new treatments being developed for pancreatic cancer.
Dr. Hawkins: It's my pleasure to be here.
Conner: From the radio studio for the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston, I'm Bobbi Conner for South Carolina Public Radio.
Health Focus transcripts are intended to accurately represent the original audio version of the program; however, some discrepancies or inaccuracies may exist. The audio format serves as the official record of Health Focus programming.
