- New research uncovered a potential new way to treat pancreatic cancer, the third-deadliest cancer in 2025.
- The therapy may help human immune cells more effectively attack pancreatic tumors.
- Below, experts explain how, why, and if there are any future plans for the treatment.
There were an estimated 52,000 pancreatic cancer-related deaths in 2025, which amounted to around 8% of all cancer-related deaths that year, according to the National Cancer Institute. Those numbers make it the third deadliest behind lung and colorectal cancers in the United States, and that’s largely because signs of pancreas problems can be quite difficult to detect, and treatment is just as tricky. Now, scientists say they may have found a way to fight pancreatic cancer in a surprising new study.
“Pancreatic cancer is very good at protecting itself,” explains Yana Puckett, M.D., JustAnswer cancer care expert and board-certified surgical oncologist at the Nancy N. and J.C. Lewis Cancer & Research Pavilion in Savannah. “It creates a very dense, hostile environment around the tumor that keeps helpful immune cells out and instead, attracts immune cells that actually suppress the immune response,” she adds. “That’s one reason immunotherapy hasn’t worked very well for most pancreatic cancer patients so far.”
Meet the experts: Yana Puckett, M.D., JustAnswer cancer care expert and board-certified surgical oncologist at the Nancy N. and J.C. Lewis Cancer & Research Pavilion in Savannah; Mohamed Abdel Mohsen, Ph.D., a co-author of the study and associate professor of medicine and infectious diseases at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine.
The study, conducted on mice and published in Cancer Research, zeroed in on a specific way that pancreatic cancer “hides” from the immune system, and found a way to potentially unmask it, allowing for the immune system to do its protective duties. “We found that pancreatic cancer cells can ‘sugar-coat’ themselves by expressing specific sugars, called sialic acid, that the immune system normally interprets as a sign of healthy cells,” explains Mohamed Abdel Mohsen, Ph.D., a co-author of the study and associate professor of medicine and infectious diseases at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine.
The sugar-coated camouflage “sends a ‘do not attack’ message to key immune cells,” Mohsen explains, “causing them to ignore the tumor as if it were normal cells.” In other words, pancreatic cancer cells may be a “wolf in sheep’s clothing,” he says: “This helps create an immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment.”
The good news is, when researchers blocked the protein with antibody therapy, immune cells were able to recognize and attack the cancer in mice, and the tumors grew more slowly, explains Dr. Puckett.
How was the study conducted?
First, researchers identified which molecule on pancreatic cancer cells was carrying the sugar “disguise” as Siglec-10, “which is basically a ‘brake’ on certain immune cells,” explains Dr. Puckett. Then, they measured how well immune cells could engulf pancreatic cancer cells and asked whether blocking Siglec-10 with an antibody could restore that function, Mohsen explains. Lastly, researchers tested the theory in mice using complementary models “that allowed us to evaluate the effect of Siglec-10 antibody treatment on tumor growth and immune activity in living systems,” Mohsen adds.
When the sugar-coating disguise is blocked, “the immune system can better recognize the tumor as abnormal, restoring immune cells’ ability to attack cancer cells, and improving antitumor immune activity,” Mohsen concludes.
What does this mean for future cancer treatment?
“Most cancer immunotherapy efforts currently focus on targeting proteins or nucleic acids, which are important of course, but for hard-to-treat cancers like pancreatic cancer, these approaches have often fallen short,” says Mohsen. These findings are promising because they highlight a potential treatment that aims to “let the body’s own defenses fight back,” says Dr. Puckett. In other words, this treatment would focus on reprogramming the immune environment around the tumor, not just attacking the cancer cells directly, which will likely be a big part of the future of cancer treatment, she adds. That said, this is still early animal research.
According to Mohsen, the next steps will be to, hopefully, move this new class of immunotherapy forward by completing preclinical studies, finalizing clinical-grade manufacturing of the antibody, and designing a human trial, all of which will depend on available resources and regulatory review.
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