Salmonella bacteria offers hope to Pancreatic Cancer patients

This particular form of cancer, known as pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma, or PDAC, has not shown significant improvement in therapy for more than 25 years, according to the study, which was published online Wednesday in the journal Cancer Immunology Research.
Surgery is rarely successful against PDAC and results in delay, but not a cure, in almost 100 percent of cases, and there's no early warning, Diamond said.
PDAC tumors secrete a thick barrier that can block drugs from acting on the cells. The cancer cells also produce huge amounts of a molecule that effectively camouflages them from the immune system, so the body can't recognize them to form a response.
In this study, researchers modified salmonella bacteria to carry a piece of DNA that creates molecules that specifically block the cancer cells from creating that camouflage. They then coupled the bacteria with an enzyme that digests the tumor's protective barrier. The enzyme effectively drops the tumor's shield, allowing the bacteria to get in and destroy the cancer cells' immunosuppressive defenses.