Protein Kinase C as a Novel Biomarker and Target in Pancreatic Cancer

Novel Approaches & New Therapeutic Platforms

Alexandra Newton (MCC)

Andrew Lowy (MCC)

Pancreatic cancer remains one of the deadliest and most aggressive types of cancer, with a five-year survival rate of 9%. We recently discovered that the levels of two proteins predict survival outcome. One protein, PKC, is a tumor suppressor and the other protein, PHLPP1, is its negative regulator that controls how much PKC is present. We found that in pancreatic cancer, high PHLPP1/low PKC correlated with poor prognosis: in a cohort of 105 patients, none survived longer than five years.But 50% of patients with low PHLPP1/high PKC survived longer than 5 years. This proposal Aims to set the stage for clinicians to one day use a pancreatic cancer patient’s PHLPP1/PKC levels as a predictor for prognosis, and for researchers to develop new therapeutic drugs that inhibit PHLPP1 and boost PKC as a means to treat the disease.