Center Directors
Daniel D. Von Hoff, M.D.
Laurence Hurley, Ph.D.

The Problem:

With more than 32,180 new cases expected to be diagnosed in 2006*, pancreatic cancer is the fourth leading cause of cancer death in the U.S., and the survival rate is worst among all malignancies.

Cancer of the pancreas generally develops without early symptoms, and by the time the severe abdominal pain characteristic of pancreas cancer develops, the 1-year survival rate drops to only 21%, and the 5-year rate is about 5%*. Unfortunately, research activities for developing treatments or early detection methods are limited due to a lack of specialized scientific infrastructure to support the necessary training for pancreatic cancer research.

The Solutions:

In order to address the problem facing the pancreatic cancer research field, NFCR has established a research center, the NFCR Center for Targeted Cancer Therapies at TGen, to bring together some of the leading minds to combat this devastating disease.

Dr. Daniel Von Hoff (The Translational Genomics Research Institute) and Dr. Laurence Hurley (Arizona Cancer Center, University of Arizona) have been named co-directors of the new center. Dr. Von Hoff has been widely credited for his "translational research" in developing anticancer agents, particularly those associated with the treatment of pancreatic cancer. Dr. Hurley's research has focused on targeting protein-DNA complexes to control the expression of cancer-causing genes (oncogene). His work has been widely noted and places him among the leaders on design of new therapeutics to fight cancer.

Located in Tucson, Arizona, The Arizona Cancer Center-NFCR partnership makes possible a greater return than might be realized by each separate entity. The Cancer Center provides its investigators a total of 14 shared resources, including fully-equipped laboratory space and a research team already dedicated to the goal of preventing and curing pancreatic cancer. By utilizing these state-of-art equipments and resources, this particular group of scientists would be able to study and reach a more detailed and deepened understanding about pancreatic cancer.

Arizona Center Researchers

The Research:

Before a drug can be designed to fight pancreatic cancer cells, one has to know the molecules that are responsible for changing a normal cell to cancer cells. Utilizing the cutting-edge technology "Microarray" and RT-PCR, in the mid 1990s, Dr. Von Hoff's group identified a potential drug target, the aurora kinase-2. Under normal circumstances, this molecule ensures each divided daughter cell receives the full sets of genetic materials from their parent cell. However, if the gene encoding this molecule is over-expressed, aurora kinase-2 production will be imbalanced, and the daughter cells will get either less or more of the genetic materials from the parent cell. Because genetic material plays central role in controlling the normality of cells, an increase or decrease in these material would likely result in cancer, particularly pancreatic cancer.

Recently, researchers in Dr. Von Hoff's laboratory further validated the aurora kinase-2 as the molecular target for pancreatic cancer.  A 3-D homology model of aurora kinase has been developed that led to the discovery of a possible inhibitor molecule, staurosporin, which is able to latch on to the aurora kinase molecule and may thereby be able to render the aurora kinase molecule inactive, eventually inhibit the growth of pancreatic cancer.

* Statistics taken from Cancer Facts and Figures 2006 , American Cancer Society

Last Updated: 04.11.07