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.
References
Al Shemaili, J. et al. Frondoside A enhances the antiproliferative effects of gemcitabine in pancreatic cancer. Eur. J. Cancer 10.1016/j.ejca.2014.01.002
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Frondoside A enhances the effects of gemcitabine. Nat Rev Clin Oncol 11, 123 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrclinonc.2014.24
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nrclinonc.2014.24