New pancreatic cancer treatment targets fast-replicating cancer cells while leaving healthy cells unharmed

A new drug developed to treat pancreatic cancer, called rigosertib, allows the cancer cells to rush through replication and then stops them in their tracks, in the middle of the mitotic (M) phase. Normal cells, which do not rush replications, are left unharmed. This ‘tortoise and the hare’ method is possible because rigosertib targets two enzymes, PLK1 and P13K, which are the signals that allow the quick cell division. In turning these signals off, rigosertib stops the natural cell cycle called the G1 regulatory mechanism, causing the cancer cells to die but not affecting healthy cells. “Really, the drug takes one of cancer’s greatest strengths and turns it into a weakness,” says Wells Messersmith, the drug’s clinical trial’s national principal investigator. The new treatment is now in a phase II/III trial in metastatic pancreatic cancer to further test its effectiveness in treating the disease.