OU Scientists' Experimental Research Aims to Treat Metastatic Cancer
Researchers at the University of Oklahoma are testing an experimental treatment for metastatic cancer focusing on pancreatic cancer. Metastasis, the condition when cancer cells spread beyond the original tumor, is the “worst enemy” of cancer patients, said Wei R. Chen , Ph.D., the Stephenson Chair and Professor of Biomedical Engineering in the Gallogly College of Engineering. “It is the metastasis of cancer that kills about 90% of cancer patients,” Chen said. “Pancreatic cancer is the worst of all because it metastasizes so fast. At the time of diagnosis, 80% of patients would either have local advancement or distance metastasis – where cancer has spread to other parts of the body. The five-year survival rate of the patients with distance metastatic pancreatic cancer is only about 3%.” The five-year study is funded by an approximately $2.5 million grant from the National Cancer Institute and is led by Chen and Min Li, Ph.D., a George Lynn Cross Research Professor of Medicine, Surgery a