Chemoprevention of pancreatic cancer using a combinatorial nano-drug system

描述(由申请人提供)： 胰腺癌是美国癌症死亡的第四大常见原因，每年有超过4.2万人被诊断出患有这种疾病。对于5年内存活率为5%的患者来说，预后极其严峻。当前治疗方式的表现令人失望，因此研究治疗胰腺癌的替代策略势在必行。使用低剂量药物的组合化学预防有可能在这种快速传播的疾病开始之前就阻止它提供一个答案。阿司匹林、姜黄素和萝卜硫素作为化学预防药物最近受到了极大的关注，然而，尽管最近有证据表明许多有希望的化学预防药物联合使用时具有协同作用，但还没有一个小组研究这些药物的联合作用。此外，文献中关于最佳化学预防组合、剂量、疗效、副作用以及提供这些化学预防药物预防胰腺癌的理想配方策略的数据也有限。为了引起任何类型的有意义的治疗反应，胰腺药物输送的配方策略是重要的考虑因素。目前正在对基于纳米技术的药物输送系统进行评估，以提供化学预防组合，这种组合将降低剂量，减少毒副作用的可能性，同时保持疗效。这种系统在胰腺癌中的应用从未被研究过。因此，这项初步研究的总体目标是开发一种有效的、低剂量的、使用独特的基于纳米技术的给药系统来预防胰腺癌的化学预防药物的新组合。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Pancreatic cancer is the fourth most common cause of cancer deaths in the United States with over 42,000 diagnosed with this disease every year. The prognosis is extremely grim for affected patients with <5% chance of survival within 5 years. The disappointing performance of current treatment modalities makes it imperative to investigate alternative strategies against pancreatic cancer. Combinatorial chemoprevention using low doses of drugs has the potential to provide an answer in terms of arresting this fast-spreading disease even before it is initiated. Aspirin, curcumin and sulforaphane have recently received significant attention as chemopreventive agents, however, no group has investigated a combinatorial effect of these agents despite recent evidence of synergistic activity of many promising chemopreventive agents when administered in combination. Also, there is limited data in literature as to the optimal chemopreventive combinations, doses, efficacy, side effects and an ideal formulation strategy to deliver these chemopreventive agents against pancreatic cancer. The formulation strategy for pancreatic drug delivery is important to consider in order to elicit any type of a meaningful therapeutic response. Nanotechnology-based drug delivery systems are currently being evaluated to deliver chemopreventive combinations that would lower the doses with lesser chance of toxic side effects, while maintaining efficacy. The application of such a system has never been studied in pancreatic cancer. Thus, the overall goal of this pilot study is to develop an effective, low dose, novel combination of chemopreventive agents delivered using a unique nanotechnology-based delivery system for the prevention of pancreatic cancer.