Investigating gemcitabine resistance in pancreatic cancer

There is a growing need to personalise anti-cancer treatments because cancers, like individuals, are somewhat unique. Diagnostic assays detecting specific features (biomarkers) provide a framework to classify tumours according to their molecular content. In turn, the specific cancer profile guides the clinician’s choice for therapy. This personalised medicine approach will markedly increase the effectiveness of cancer treatments. Although gemcitabine is the backbone of several cancer treatments, it is effective in only the minority of patients; major resistance mechanisms in cancer cells dramatically limit its activity. Hence, patients receiving this compound have only a marginally improved life-span, compared with untreated individuals. This project will characterize conditions in pancreatic cancer cells in which there is an effect on the levels of drug resistance to gemcitabine.