Pancreatic cancer is one of the deadliest diseases known to medicine. It’s hard to detect, quick to spread, and resistant to most treatments. With a five-year survival rate of just 13%, pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is a nightmare diagnosis. But a team of researchers from Case Western Reserve University and the Cleveland Clinic believe they may have found a way to change that — using nanoparticles made of fat.
Biomedical engineer Zheng-Rong (ZR) Lu has been working with lipid-based nanoparticles for over 20 years. These tiny fat particles aren’t about nutrition — they’re vehicles. Because lipids are naturally compatible with human tissue, they’re ideal for carrying drugs and vaccines through the body without causing harm. Now, Lu and his team are using this technology to deliver a new kind of cancer vaccine, designed specifically to fight PDAC.
“It came as a surprise that our approach works so well,” Lu said. In preclinical (non-human) studies, the vaccine completely eliminated tumors in over half of the animal models — and kept them cancer-free for months.
Lu teamed up with immunologist Dr. Li Lily Wang, an associate professor of molecular medicine at Case Western Reserve and a researcher at Cleveland Clinic. Together, they developed a vaccine that trains the immune system to recognize and attack pancreatic cancer cells. The vaccine works by loading the nanoparticles with antigens — molecular markers tied to the most common genetic mutations found in PDAC tumors.
Finding hidden cancer and even preventing it
Cancer is notoriously good at hiding from the immune system, often tricking the body into thinking everything is normal. The new vaccine breaks that illusion by exposing key mutations that drive cancer growth, such as changes in the KRAS gene. Once injected, the nanoparticles help the immune system “see” the tumor cells for what they are — and destroy them.
Even more promising: the vaccine appears to create immune memory. In other words, the brain retains knowledge of what cancer cells look like and keeps attacking them. “If we could do that in patients,” Lu said, “we could prevent PDAC before tumors start forming. So, the vaccines could be either therapeutic or preventative.”
The vaccine is designed to be given in three doses and could be used both as a treatment and a preventive measure, especially for patients at high risk of developing pancreatic cancer.
“This platform has the potential to transform clinical care for this devastating disease,” said Wang, also a staff member in translational hematology and oncology research at Cleveland Clinic. “I am excited to see that our novel nano-vaccine worked so well in eliciting vigorous responses from tumor-reactive T cells — which are typically low in numbers and unable to control tumor growth.”
To boost its effectiveness even further, the researchers plan to combine the vaccine with an immune checkpoint inhibitor — a type of drug that prevents cancer cells from switching off the immune response. This combination has already shown success in treating other cancers and could make the PDAC vaccine even more powerful.
Funding matters
Of course, moving from preclinical to clinical trials is a big step. Oftentimes, even promising treatments don’t work on humans. But researchers are confident.
The project recently received a $3.27 million, five-year grant from the National Cancer Institute to continue developing and testing the vaccine. Next steps include more in-depth safety testing and real-time monitoring of its effects using advanced imaging technologies. The goal is to move toward clinical trials in humans as soon as possible.
Funding is absolutely critical for advancing experimental treatments like the PDAC nanoparticle vaccine. Developing a new cancer therapy involves years of preclinical testing, safety assessments, manufacturing refinements, and, eventually, costly clinical trials. Federal grants provide the foundational support needed to move promising lab work toward real-world application. Without sustained funding, even groundbreaking ideas can stall before they reach patients.
And this funding isn’t guaranteed. Shifts in government priorities, budget cuts, or political gridlock can jeopardize the continuity of cancer research. In recent years, researchers have expressed concern that vital early-stage studies — especially those that are high-risk, high-reward — are the first to feel the pinch when funding tightens.
The research team includes experts from various fields, including surgery and pathology, with all members connected through the Case Comprehensive Cancer Center. The hope is that their multidisciplinary approach — and the early success of their lipid nanoparticle vaccine — could finally offer a way to stop pancreatic cancer before it takes hold.
The study has not yet been published and peer-reviewed but the team is expected to publish results as soon as the preclinical trials are over.
