Luke O’Neill has said scientists are hopeful they are on the brink of the “best advance” in the treatment of pancreatic cancer in years.
The pancreas is found in the lower part of the stomach and is used to digest food and produce hormones.
Every year, some 600 people in Ireland are diagnosed with pancreatic cancer - perhaps most notably Minister for Finance Brian Lenihan in 2009.
Symptoms include - but are not limited to - pain in the tummy area, unexplained weight loss, indigestion or jaundice.
On The Pat Kenny Show, Trinity Professor Luke O’Neill described pancreatic cancer as a “very hard one to treat”; however, scientists are hopeful that that could soon change.
“They’ve devised a way to get the immune system to hunt down the pancreatic tumour itself and then the metastasis that is spreading around the body,” he explained.
“So, it’s really like a heat seeking missile in a way and it’s really working.
“It’s pre-clinical - let’s make that clear - it’s experimental.
“But this is the best advance, some people are saying, they’ve seen in the prospect of treating pancreatic cancer.”
These are the common symptoms of #PancreaticCancer 🔻
They can be caused by many different conditions and having them does not definitely mean you have cancer.But it's important to get them checked by a GP.
More info: https://t.co/l9dEyE6ez0 pic.twitter.com/Qnkk9IoJF7
— Department of Health and Social Care (@DHSCgovuk) August 30, 2022
Professor O’Neill continued that the cancer patient’s own immune system could hold the key to treatment.
“So, you have an immune cell called an NKT cell - that stands for natural killer tumour cell, which kills cells. It’s a natural process,” he said.
“They’re engineering them to really be much more effective, giving them a second weapon to help them fight the tumour.
“Then you take the cells from people’s blood, you engineer them to really hunt down the tumour.
“So, they put them back in again and they find the tumours and kill them.”
The Irish Cancer Society urges anyone who believes they might have pancreatic cancer to contact their GP and get their symptom checked.
Main image: Luke O’Neill in the Newstalk studio. Image: Newstalk
