Pancreatic cancer has a very poor prognosis. Gemcitabine is the current standard therapy, but more-effective treatments are needed. A study in human pancreatic cancer cell lines has shown that the triterpenoid, frondoside A, when combined with gemcitabine, could serve as a promising new treatment approach for treatment of this disease. In an athymic mouse model, tumour growth was significantly reduced with the gemcitabine–frondoside A combination compared with either drug alone, even when gemcitabine was used at the lowest dose tested (4 mg/kg). These results indicate that this combination might provide clinical benefit in patients.