Friday, May 9, 2025
5/9/2025
Porcine Platforms For Technology Development In Pancreatic Cancer - Porcine Platforms For Technology Development In Pancreatic Cancer PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT The long-term goal of this research is to develop a platform on which experimental therapies and devices for pancreatic cancer (PC) management can be advanced to the clinic in a more efficient manner than achievable with current preclinical PC models. The focused objective of this R01 application is to demonstrate the utility of a transgenic porcine model of cancer (the KRAS/p53 Oncopig) in testing the antitumor efficacy of novel neoadjuvant therapies and also in testing the effectiveness of three endoscopic medical devices for imaging and treatment of PC. Murine PC models may not adequately reflect human tumor biology because of differences in size, physiology, anatomy, and genetic sequence with humans. So, the rationale to use a porcine model of PC is that it should be more predictive of human tumor biology and response to therapy than murine models are. This R01 application will particularly use the swine's size advantage. The hypothesis of this R01 application is that transgenic porcine models of PC are feasible and useful for testing of PC applications. In Aim 1, the ability of the transgenic porcine PC model to replicate the entire neoadjuvant therapy/surgery/survival sequence of human PC management will be demonstrated. In Aim 2, two novel endoscopic technologies for imaging and treatment of PC will be tested in the Oncopig, in studies which would not be feasible in a mouse. The work proposed in this R01 application will be accomplished through a collaborative, multi-faceted team that will include a general-oncologic surgeon (PI), molecular/cellular biologists with expertise in PC and gene editing, a medical oncologist who manages patients with PC, a pathologist specializing in pancreatic/GI cancers, sequencing and bioinformatics experts, a radiologist focused on MRI research, and a biostatistician. This project is innovative because the type of models proposed and the novel technologies that will be tested with these models. The impact of validated porcine models of PC would be to enhance, complement, and supplement preclinical data from other tumor models, and also to advance experimental technologies for PC management to the clinic in a more efficient manner, with fewer experimental therapies failing in clinical trials.
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