Israeli scientists have announced a leap forward in pain relief for pancreatic cancer. Dr Yaacov Richard Lawrence, originally from London, is part of a team at Sheba Medical Centre in Ramat Gan conducting the world’s first clinical trial and study of targeted radiation treatments into the main abdominal artery. The aim is to relieve the pain and prolong the lives of pancreatic cancer patients.

“Pancreatic cancer patients just don’t respond at all to morphine, so we have developed a different form of palliative care, which can provide relief from pain, as well as the physical and mental stress associated with this type of disease,” says Lawrence, who is also an assistant professor at Jefferson University in Philadelphia and a member of the Royal College of Physicians of London and American Association for Cancer Research. “After we finish our trial/study along with other participating hospitals and publish the results, we are reasonably sure this will be the standard procedure for pancreatic cancer care all over the globe.” Some patients report they have been able to greatly reduce — or even stop taking — their painkillers. One patient said she was able to return to her favourite activity — ballroom dancing.

“We deliver a very high dose of radiation into the nerve,” explains Lawrence. “We have been doing this clinical trial and research for the past two and a half years. Eighty per cent of the patients given this treatment showed a significant decrease in pain and 30 per cent within the 80 per cent were pain-free. As a result, these patients were more active and mobile, which allowed them to live longer and be treated with stronger medications.”

Pancreatic cancer has the highest mortality rate of all major cancers — 91 per cent of pancreatic cancer patients die within five years of diagnosis and 74 per cent die within the first year. The pilot study was supported by the Israel Cancer Association. A larger international clinical trial is under way, recruiting patients across North America, Europe and Israel.

Lawrence works with Dr Tzvi Simon, head of the department of radiotherapy and Dr Talia Golan, who runs the Sheba Pancreatic Cancer Centre and is medical director of the Sheba Phase I clinical trial unit. Dr David Hausner, who lives in Canada but will return to Israel soon, played a vital role in creating the study.

“Though 50 per cent of pancreatic cancer patients are dying in just a few months, we are making significant strides,” says Golan. “I believe we will eventually find a therapy that will subdue this dreaded disease.”