A great achievement in the fight against pancreatic cancer.. Scientists are close to treating the deadly disease

Scientists have achieved a major breakthrough in the fight against pancreatic cancer by developing a treatment that can significantly improve survival rates, and scientists from the Institute of Cancer Research in London combined two treatments already used in hospitals as part of their research, and also tested them on mice.

According to RT Arabia, one of the treatments is immunotherapy, which includes a drug that activates the immune system to fight cancer.

The drug prevents the protein that stops the immune system from attacking cancer cells and has achieved great success against some types of cancer, but pancreatic cancer tumors have a thick outer layer that prevents the drug from penetrating the barrier.

The second treatment is high-intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU), which blasts away the tumor with pulses of sound waves.

This results in tiny bubbles in the cells that bounce back forcefully, creating holes in the protective barrier, allowing the drug to work effectively.

Mice with pancreatic tumors given the combination therapy lived 25% longer than those given high-intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) only, and 35% longer than those given the drug that activates the immune system only.

They also lived 40% longer than those who were not treated at all.

Study co-author Dr Petros Moratidis said such treatment could add several additional months of life in humans.

But the mice were given only one treatment, and the scientists hope that the "two-in-one" treatment can cure pancreatic cancer if given in the form of a long course.

He explained that if human trials are successful, the treatments could be used on a large scale within five years.

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