Researchers discover dementia-like behaviour in pre-cancer cells

Researchers from the Cancer Research UK Scotland Centre studied pancreas cells in mice over time to see what was causing healthy cells to turn into cancer cells. 

They discovered that pancreatic cells at risk of becoming cancerous, known as pre-cancers, develop faults in the cell’s recycling process known as ‘autophagy’.

In pre-cancer cells, the researchers noticed excess “problem protein” molecules forming clumps – behaviour seen in neurological diseases such as dementia. 

The researchers also found similar clumping occurring in human pancreas samples, suggesting this happens during pancreatic cancer development.

Although survival for many types of cancer has improved over recent decades, this has not been the case for pancreatic cancer which is linked to 6,900 deaths in the UK every year.

Multiple cancer types, including pancreatic cancer, are linked to a faulty mutation in a gene called KRAS, but autophagy has also been found to play a key role. 

This research suggests the combined effect of the faulty KRAS gene and disrupted autophagy could be driving the development of pancreatic cancer. 

The researchers plan to study these processes in more detail, to see if they can help predict or possibly reverse the start of pancreatic cancer, and if factors like age, sex, or diet play a role.

The research was funded by Cancer Research UK, with additional support from Wellcome, the Medical Research Council, and the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council.