Tumor priming sequences combined with novel nanoparticle drug carriers for enhanced therapeutic efficacy in pancreatic cancer: a tripartite USA/Northern Ireland/Republic of Ireland consortium

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Pancreatic cancer is lethal to the vast majority of patients, largely because the disease is advanced when discovered, and tumor blood flow is so low that drugs do not readily access the tumor. This project will address the ‘drug delivery’ barrier by establishing a conceptual understanding of how ‘tumor priming’ agents work; they attack the barrier between the blood stream and the tumor interior, creating a ‘window of opportunity’ for delivery of a second agent. We hypothesize that nanoparticle-based drug carriers may have unique advantages that enable them to exploit tumor priming strategies more effectively and improve therapeutic outcomes; inclusion of several clinically-approved agents in our research plan will provide strong rationale for near-term clinical trials in pancreatic cancer, and we propose novel novel nanoparticle agents of longer-term developmental potential.