Supreme Court justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s death this past week after battling stage 4 pancreatic cancer is a grim reminder of how aggressive the disease can be. In fact, pancreatic cancer will soon be the second leading cause of cancer-related death for individuals in the United States. Unfortunately, it is known to be highly resistant to treatments that are currently available.

With the aid of CIRM-funding, John R. Cashman, Ph.D., along with a team of researchers at the Human BioMolecular Research Institute and ChemRegen, Inc. have developed a “drug-like” chemical that may change that. The newly created compound, PAWI-2, was tested on pancreatic cancer stem cells in a laboratory setting. The compound works by activating apoptosis, a process that tells the cells when to stop dividing and influences cell death.

Under the microscope, the team of researchers found that PAWI-2 successfully inhibited the growth of these cancer stem cells. In addition to this, the team analyzed if PAWI-2 had any effect on existing pancreatic cancer treatments, specifically erlotinib and trametinib. What they found was that their “drug-like” chemical improved the effectiveness of both of these anti-cancer drugs.

In a press release, Dr. Cashman explained the significance that PAWI-2 could play for pancreatic cancer treatments.

“We need to develop effective new medications for drug resistant pancreatic cancer. Using a non-toxic small molecule like PAWI-2 to stop pancreatic cancer either by itself or in combination with standard of care chemotherapy is very appealing.”

The full paper, published in Investigational New Drugs, can be accessed here.