The 2005 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded to Barry Marshall and J. Robin Warren for their discovery that peptic ulcers were caused by a bacterial (Helicobacter pylori) infection. Thereafter, this common human malady was easily treated with antibiotics. But perhaps more importantly, this new treatment helped to prevent one of the deadliest types of cancer – gastric (stomach) cancer – which often developed as a result of chronic peptic ulcers.
In this study, researchers from NYU School of Medicine identify a pathogenic fungus as a culprit in the development of the deadliest cancer of all: pancreatic cancer. Will anti-fungal medications be used to treat or prevent pancreatic cancer in the near future?
