Selective targeting of pancreatic cancer spore - stop cancer spore abstract pancreatic cancer remains a lethal disease with limited therapeutic options

Options have increased over the last 5 years, with large genomic analyses and preclinical efforts. However, despite advances, pancreatic cancer remains a lethal disease with a five-year survival rate of 10%, and deaths from pancreatic cancer are expected to surpass deaths from breast, prostate and colorectal cancer by 2030, to become the second leading cause of cancer deaths. The incidence is rapidly increasing, with, a 23% increase since 2010 and 57% increase since 2006. The etiology and reason for the recent rise remain poorly understood with a complex interplay of somatic genetic, genomic, epigenetic and environmental factors in the context of an aging population. Unlike many solid tumors, mutations alone have not been sufficient to yield curative targeted therapies, clinically useful biomarkers or consensus subtypes. Challenges that remain include: · low tumor cellularity hampers both genetic and genomic studies, including the inability to identify biomarkers/subtypes to tailor therapies · chemotherapy and targeted therapy resistant tumor cell populations · desmoplastic stroma that may be both tumor promoting and therapy inhibiting · immunosuppressive environment due to suppressive myeloid cells and a paucity of t effector cells · precision oncology approaches are still limited · clinical trials are limited to only 1-2 therapies at a time we have assembled three projects that directly address these issues; each has an embedded early phase clinical trial that will yield patient samples with which to test our spore's hypotheses. Robust development research and career enhancement programs are included based on the highly successful models at UNC lineberger. These will be backed by a substantial institutional commitment. A highly accomplished multidisciplinary team of investigators with collaborations across several institutions have been brought together that includes those who have made innovative and high impact contributions, delivered clinical care and performed clinical and translational research germane to pancreatic cancer. Recognizing the need for pancreatic cancer rapid translation to the clinic, our tissue procurement, pathology, and genomics core and integrative quantitative sciences core work seamlessly with the projects to process and analyze data. Our stop cancer spore goal is to establish a new paradigm for clinical trial design that is not limited to a single therapy or biomarker.