A University of Rochester Medical Center team has received a $3 million National Cancer Institute grant to study how pancreatic cancer cells spread and evade the immune system, building on laboratory findings about a cancer cell's internal clock.
The grant supports a project led by Wilmot Cancer Institute researchers Darren Carpizo, Paula Vertino and Brian Altman. Their work will examine how the timing system inside cancer cells may influence each stage of metastasis, when cancer spreads from its original site to other organs.
Two questions about spread and immunity
One part of the project will track changes in the metastatic process at different times of day. Another will examine whether a cancer cell's circadian system suppresses normal immune signals, making it harder for the body's killer T cells to detect the tumor, according to the medical center.
The new work follows published laboratory data implicating the Dec2 gene's 24-hour cycle in pancreatic cancer cells' ability to hide from immune cells. It raises a question about whether the timing of immunotherapy could matter, but the announcement does not report a clinical trial or show that changing treatment times helps patients.
Carpizo's laboratory is also investigating targets that might keep pancreatic cancer cells inactive. A separate recent study from his group identified a possible role for a molecule called UNC5B in cancer spread; the molecule is usually associated with guiding nerve cells. Those findings are research leads, not established treatments.
The grant came through the National Cancer Institute's Metastasis Research Network, which supports multi-investigator projects. Wilmot said the collaboration grew from discussions between Carpizo, a surgeon and researcher, and Altman, who studies circadian rhythms, before Vertino joined with expertise in epigenetic regulation.
The researchers received a Wilmot pilot award in 2022 to begin the joint work. The center said the collaboration combines surgery, genetics, epigenetics and circadian biology rather than treating tumor growth, spread and immune evasion as separate questions.
Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma can invade surrounding tissue and spread to the liver or lungs, which makes metastatic disease a central treatment challenge, the medical center said. It cited a five-year survival rate of 13% and said the cancer can resist current immunotherapies; the new grant is intended to investigate those mechanisms, not announce a cure.
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