Saif aims to improve efficacy of pancreatic cancer treatment

New seed funding from the Cancer Center at Illinois (CCIL) will help fund MechSE professor Taher Saif’s work to improve treatments for pancreatic cancer. CCIL seed grants provide funding that enables faculty teams to develop noble cancer research ideas, collect preliminary data and attract external funding.

Saif’s project, “A high throughput stiffness sensor for testing efficacy of chemo and CAR-T cell therapy for pancreatic cancer,” focuses on understanding and manipulating the tumor microenvironment to improve the efficacy of pancreatic cancer treatment. His research examines the mechanical stiffness of the cells in the tumor microenvironment. Saif said that typically in cancer microenvironments, chemotherapy drugs are less effective due to the stiffness of the cancer-associated fibroblasts. Fibroblasts are the cells surrounding the tumor, creating a stiff structure around it.

This stiffness prevents the chemotherapy drugs from reaching the tumor effectively to eliminate the cancer cells. The end goal is to soften the fibroblasts to increase the efficacy of the chemotherapy drugs. “This softening made the chemotherapy significantly more effective in targeting cancer cells,” said Saif.

Saif’s team is responsible for developing the advanced instrumentation required for the study and conducting the research. They utilize patient-driven tumor organoids to replicate the tumor environment in vitro. The team then tests the efficacy of the chemotherapy drugs to assess the tumor stiffness under different drugs.

“By relaxing the stiffness of the tumor microenvironment, we’ve observed a remarkable increase in drug efficacy,” Saif said. “This approach not only improves treatment outcomes but also paves the way for more personalized cancer therapies.”

In the short term, this research benefits pancreatic cancer patients and doctors. Over the long term, the findings and methodologies of Saif’s study have benefits beyond pancreatic cancer. The methods could be adapted to other solid tumors exhibiting stiffness-related drug resistance.

“If we can predict which drug combinations are most effective for individual patients, we can significantly improve personalized treatment strategies,” he said.

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This research is reported in the paper,  “Nuclear deformation regulates YAP dynamics in cancer associated fibroblasts,” available online here.

Saif is the William Edward and Jane Marr Gutgsell Professor in mechanical science and engineering, and an affiliate faculty member in bioengineering and the Cancer Center at Illinois.