PRESS-NEWS.org - Press Release Distribution
PRESS RELEASES DISTRIBUTION

Preclinical study finds drug helps against pancreatic cancer

2013-10-25
(Press-News.org) Contact information: Deirdre Branley
sciencenews@einstein.yu.edu
718-430-3101
Albert Einstein College of Medicine
Preclinical study finds drug helps against pancreatic cancer October 23, 2013—(BRONX, NY)—An investigational drug that disrupts tumor blood vessels shows promise against a rare type of pancreatic cancer, scientists at Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University have found. Their results were presented October 20 during a poster session at an international cancer conference. The drug Zybrestat selectively targets and collapses tumor blood vessels, depriving the tumor of oxygen and making its cells die. In experiments involving a mouse model of pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors, Einstein scientists found that infusing mice with Zybrestat three times per week for four weeks resulted in significant antitumor activity compared with control mice given a placebo. The findings were presented in Boston at the American Association for Cancer Research-National Cancer Institute-European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer International Conference on Molecular Targets and Cancer Therapeutics. Presenting for Einstein was ZiQiang Yuan, M.D., research assistant professor of surgery at Einstein. The senior author is Steven K. Libutti, M.D., professor of genetics at Einstein and professor and vice chair of surgery at Einstein and Montefiore Medical Center, the University Hospital and academic medical center for Einstein. Pancreatic cancer is the fourth-leading cause of cancer death in the U.S. According to the National Cancer Institute, more than 45,000 Americans will be diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in 2013 and more than 38,000 will die of the disease. Exocrine pancreatic cancer, the more common and usually fatal type, begins in the ducts that carry pancreatic juices. The Einstein study involved endocrine pancreatic cancer—the much less common and more curable form of the disease that originates in pancreatic cells that make hormones (and that caused the death of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs). All the mice in the study had insulinomas—endocrine tumors that form in pancreatic cells that make insulin, the hormone that controls glucose levels in the blood. This type of tumor can make the pancreas over-secrete insulin. The Einstein researchers found that treating the mice with Zybrestat caused a significant and sustained decrease in circulating insulin and also significantly reduced tumor size. Zybrestat has been evaluated in clinical trials involving patients with anaplastic thyroid cancer, a highly aggressive cancer for which there are no approved treatments. The drug is made by OXiGENE, Inc., a biotech company based in San Francisco, CA. Dr. Libutti is also director of the Montefiore Einstein Center for Cancer Care and associate director, clinical services at the Albert Einstein Cancer Center. This research was supported in part by OXiGENE, Inc. through a sponsored research agreement with Einstein. The authors report no conflicts of interest.

### About Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University is one of the nation's premier centers for research, medical education and clinical investigation. During the 2013-2014 academic year, Einstein is home to 734 M.D. students, 236 Ph.D. students, 106 students in the combined M.D./Ph.D. program, and 353 postdoctoral research fellows. The College of Medicine has more than 2,000 full-time faculty members located on the main campus and at its clinical affiliates. In 2013, Einstein received more than $155 million in awards from the NIH. This includes the funding of major research centers at Einstein in diabetes, cancer, liver disease, and AIDS. Other areas where the College of Medicine is concentrating its efforts include developmental brain research, neuroscience, cardiac disease, and initiatives to reduce and eliminate ethnic and racial health disparities. Its partnership with Montefiore Medical Center, the University Hospital and academic medical center for Einstein, advances clinical and translational research to accelerate the pace at which new discoveries become the treatments and therapies that benefit patients. Through its extensive affiliation network involving Montefiore, Jacobi Medical Center–Einstein's founding hospital, and five other hospital systems in the Bronx, Manhattan, Long Island and Brooklyn, Einstein runs one of the largest residency and fellowship training programs in the medical and dental professions in the United States. For more information, please visit http://www.einstein.yu.edu and follow us on Twitter @EinsteinMed. END


ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

Could the Colorado River once have flowed into the Labrador Sea?

2013-10-25
Could the Colorado River once have flowed into the Labrador Sea? November 2013 GSA Today Boulder, Colorado, USA – In the November issue of GSA Today, James W. Sears of the University of Montana in Missoula advocates a possible Canadian connection for the early Miocene ...

Young, black women at highest risk for lupus, suffer more life-threatening complications

2013-10-25
Young, black women at highest risk for lupus, suffer more life-threatening complications Lupus disparities in southeastern Michigan: Black females develop disease during prime reproductive years, at higher risk for kidney and neurologic complications ANN ...

MTV, AP-NORC Center survey finds that online bullying has declined

2013-10-25
MTV, AP-NORC Center survey finds that online bullying has declined Report shows downward trend across 26 of 27 forms of digital abuse, incidence of sexting drops nearly 20 percent, less than half of young people report experiencing digital abuse New York, ...

ALMA reveals ghostly shape of 'coldest place in the universe'

2013-10-25
ALMA reveals ghostly shape of 'coldest place in the universe' At a cosmologically crisp one degree Kelvin (minus 458 degrees Fahrenheit), the Boomerang Nebula is the coldest known object in the Universe – colder, in fact, than the faint afterglow of ...

Participation in mindfulness-based program improves teacher well-being

2013-10-25
Participation in mindfulness-based program improves teacher well-being Teacher well-being, efficacy, burnout-related stress, time-related stress and mindfulness significantly improve when teachers participate in the CARE (Cultivating Awareness and Resilience in Education) for ...

When scaling the quantum slopes, veer for the straight path

2013-10-25
When scaling the quantum slopes, veer for the straight path Like any task, there is an easy and a hard way to control atoms and molecules as quantum systems, which are driven by tailored radiation fields. More efficient methods for manipulating quantum systems ...

Ultrasound device combined with clot-buster safe for stroke, say UTHealth researchers

2013-10-25
Ultrasound device combined with clot-buster safe for stroke, say UTHealth researchers HOUSTON – (Oct. 24, 2013) – A study led by researchers at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth) showed that a ...

NASA sees rainfall in Tropical Storm Francisco

2013-10-25
NASA sees rainfall in Tropical Storm Francisco

Does the timing of surgery to treat traumatic spinal cord injury affect outcomes?

2013-10-25
Does the timing of surgery to treat traumatic spinal cord injury affect outcomes? New Rochelle, NY, October 24, 2013—Performing surgery to take pressure off the spine after a traumatic injury soon after the event could prevent or ...

Reading this in a meeting? Women are twice as likely as men to be offended by smartphone use

2013-10-25
Reading this in a meeting? Women are twice as likely as men to be offended by smartphone use First empirical study of business etiquette and smartphones shows how mobile manners vary by gender, age and region &#8211 with important implications ...

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:

Funding for training and research in biological complexity

The Journal of Nuclear Medicine Ahead-of-Print Tip Sheet: September 12, 2025

ISSCR statement on the scientific and therapeutic value of human fetal tissue research

Novel PET tracer detects synaptic changes in spinal cord and brain after spinal cord injury

Wiley advances Knowitall Solutions with new trendfinder application for user-friendly chemometric analysis and additional enhancements to analytical workflows

Benchmark study tracks trends in dog behavior

OpenAI, DeepSeek, and Google vary widely in identifying hate speech

Research spotlight: Study identifies a surprising new treatment target for chronic limb threatening ischemia

Childhood loneliness and cognitive decline and dementia risk in middle-aged and older adults

Parental diseases of despair and suicidal events in their children

Acupuncture for chronic low back pain in older adults

Acupuncture treatment improves disabling effects of chronic low back pain in older adults

How interstellar objects similar to 3I/ATLAS could jump-start planet formation around infant stars

Rented e-bicycles more dangerous than e-scooters in cities

Ditches as waterways: Managing ‘ditch-scapes’ to strengthen communities and the environment

In-situ molecular passivation enables pure-blue perovskite LEDs via vacuum thermal evaporation

Microscopes can now watch materials go quantum with liquid helium

Who shows up in times of need? High school extracurriculars offer clues

Synthetic magnetic fields steer light on a chip for faster communications

Hear that? Mizzou researchers are ‘listening’ to molecules in supersonic conditions

Mount Sinai researchers find electrical stimulation may help predict recovery path for acute nerve injuries

Developmental biologist Maria Jasin wins the 2025 Pearl Meister Greengard Prize

Training doctors for the digital age: Canadian study charts new course for health education

New College of AI, Cyber and Computing launched at UT San Antonio

Collaborative team earns five-year renewal grant from NINDS to continue stroke research

Vitamin K analogues may help transform the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases

Cyclic triaxial tests: Evaluation of liquefaction resistance in chemically treated soils

Uniting the light spectrum on a chip

Hundreds of new bacteria, and two potential antibiotics, found in soil

Smells deceive the brain – are interpreted as taste

[Press-News.org] Preclinical study finds drug helps against pancreatic cancer