Gastric cancer is a leading cause of cancer-related deaths worldwide. Recently, clinical studies have demonstrated that many of those with advanced gastric cancer are responsive to immune checkpoint antibody therapy, although the median survival even with these new agents is less than 12 months for advanced disease. Continue Reading

A predominant feature of pancreatic cancer is its propensity to metastasize early and frequently (64). In fact, 90% of patients have advanced disease at the time of presentation (9). Although the retroperitoneal location and nonspecific symptoms may contribute to late stage diagnosis of pancreatic cancer, some characteristic features associated with this malignancy may facilitate metastases. One of the first steps in the metastatic cascade is invasion, a process that involves the loss of cell-cell adhesion and changes in the extracellular matrix to promote motility and migration (24). Continue Reading

Pancreatic cancer has been termed a ‘recalcitrant cancer’ due to its relative resistance to chemotherapy and immunotherapy.
This resistance is thought to be due in part to the dense fibrotic tumor microenvironment and lack of tumor infiltrating
CD8 + T cells. The gastrointestinal peptide, gastrin, has been shown to stimulate growth of pancreatic cancer by both a paracrine
and autocrine mechanism. Interruption of gastrin at the CCK receptor may reduce tumor-associated fibrosis and alter
tumor immune cells. Polyclonal Ab Stimulator (PAS) is a vaccine that targets gastrin and has been shown to prolong survival
of patients with pancreatic cancer. Here, we report that PAS vaccination monotherapy elicits both a humoral and cellular
immune response when used in immune competent mice-bearing pancreatic tumors and that PAS monotherapy produced a
marked T-cell activation and influx of CD8 + lymphocytes into pancreatic tumors. Continue Reading