A team of researchers at the Georgetown University Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center published new research exploring causes and potential treatment methods for pancreatic cancer, Lombardi announced Jan. 20.

Amrita Cheema, a Georgetown oncology professor who was the senior author of the study, led a team of 16 researchers to examine how specific molecules alter the behavior of pancreatic immune cells, stopping them from suppressing tumor growth. The researchers found that pancreatic cancer cells reprogram immune cells to grow tumors, revealing a new avenue for treatment.

Cheema said the lab’s first challenge was shifting from a focus on radiation biology, cancer and neurodegenerative disease to immunology.

“We know pancreatic tumors are resistant to therapy in part because they just sort of build this fort around them, the tumor microenvironment, and most clinical trials focus on killing cancer cells,” Cheema told The Hoya. “But our thought was we need to attack the microenvironment so that the drugs can get through and reach the tumor.”

“So I thought that the scientific path that we were taking was novel, was very interesting, but it was very challenging, mostly because my lab was not set up for immunology studies,” Cheema added.

Cheema’s team discovered that when extracellular vesicles — nanoparticles that facilitate communication between cells — in pancreatic cancer cells release specific immune cells, known as microRNA macrophages, they end up exacerbating the tumor. Targeting that behavior, the researchers concluded, is key to treating pancreatic cancer.

Baldev Singh, a staff scientist at Lombardi named as a co-inventor on the corresponding patent application, said the study provides a strong foundation for future research in combating pancreatic tumors.

“With this study we have found out certain targets for the future prospects, we have to validate those targets, we have to go a little bit deeper and more focused, and maybe some combinational therapy,” Singh told The Hoya. “We have to try to get better results, but these studies just laid a basic foundation, where we can say, ‘Okay, if we modulate the immune microenvironment of the microRNA, that could really help in mitigating the disease.’ It could be really beneficial.”

Cheema said her team is proud of the results of the study and is looking forward to continuing their research despite funding concerns.

“I think we are on the right track, but we just would like to put as much effort into thinking out of the box and going after these novel delivery systems and targeting the tumor,” Cheema said. “Of course, the biggest challenge in the coming years would be getting funding — research and science is in peril right now. So I hope that we can overcome this hurdle, but that’s the goal of our lab.” 

The study received some funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the U.S. medical research agency, which supported the research and experimental development. The Trump administration has cut cancer research by 31%, following a $2.7 billion funding cut for the NIH.

Virginia Marshall (CAS ’29), a pre-medical student studying biology, said she felt inspired by the work of Cheema’s lab.

“This discovery is both frightening and fascinating,” Marshall wrote to The Hoya. “Understanding the particulars of cancer pathogenesis is so essential to drug development, so this discovery deserves our full attention. I’m proud that Georgetown is moving the needle forward for pancreatic cancer research and I hope that they can use this momentum to inform their next steps in the lab and have tangible impact on real patients.”

Cheema said the next phase of the study would target different microRNA particles that act similar to the one they studied, hoping that blocking multiple tumor-promoting particles simultaneously could reverse the particles’ effects on immune cells.

“We think that that could have synergistic effects,” Cheema said. “We’ve seen very encouraging results with just inhibiting this particular microRNA, but we think that we can do better. The idea would be, going forward, to test the combination of these other target molecules and try to take a multi-pronged approach.”

“Our idea is to combine the strengths and then target this pancreatic tumor so that we can treat the tumor better,” Cheema added.