Novel Small Molecule Therapeutics for Pancreatic Cancer

Project Summary/Abstract Developing new ways to treat pancreatic cancer is a significant challenge. Pancreatic cancer is the fourth leading cause of cancer-related deaths in the United States and results in an estimated 37,000 deaths/year. Pancreatic cancer therapeutic options are limited to surgery and/or combinations of chemotherapy and radiation. Unfortunately, late-stage diagnosis of pancreatic cancer renders current therapies ineffective. The effectiveness of relatively new targeted treatments remainsto be shown. There is an urgent major unmet medical need for the development of selective treatments for pancreatic cancer. Our new approach to pancreatic cancer is completely different and focuses on inhibition of a key molecular pathway. We have discovered and optimized a small molecule (i.e., 2) that selectively and potently inhibits a key molecular pathway. The overall Goal is to test this novel small molecule as an inhibitor to suppress pancreatic cancer progression by targeting a key signaling path