A New Hope For Pancreatic Cancer: Battling The K-Ras G12D Mutation
A New Hope For Pancreatic Cancer: Battling The K-Ras G12D Mutation Pancreatic Tissue Targeting the Troublemaker Mutation Pancreatic cancer, which sadly takes over 50,000 lives each year in the U.S., might have met its match. Scientists at UC San Francisco have come up with a hopeful idea for a drug that could help treat this tough cancer. The main villain in pancreatic cancer is a sneaky mutation called K-Ras G12D. It's responsible for nearly half of all pancreatic cancer cases. But here's the thing: it's really hard to stop. Scientists at UC San Francisco, led by Dr. Kevan Shokat, worked for over ten years to figure out a way to stop this mutation. Finally, they found a molecule that can stick to the K-Ras G12D to stop it from causing trouble. K-Ras mutations are extremely common in pancreatic cancer, explaining 90% of cases. About half of these mutations are G12D, which differs from most other K-Ras mutations by a single amino acid substitution. Dr. Shokat’s team envisi...
