Medicine and Health Sciences Commons^™

Bitc Sensitizes Pancreatic Adenocarcinomas To Trail-Induced Apoptosis, Christina A. Wicker, Ravi P. Sahu, Kashmira Kulkarni-Datar, Sanjay K. Srivastava, Thomas L. Brown

Neuroscience, Cell Biology & Physiology Faculty Publications

Pancreatic adenocarcinoma is an aggressive cancer with a greater than 95% mortality rate and short survival after diagnosis. Chemotherapeutic resistance hinders successful treatment. This resistance is often associated with mutations in codon 12 of the K-Ras gene (K-Ras 12), which is present in over 90% of all pancreatic adenocarcinomas. Codon 12 mutations maintain Ras in a constitutively active state leading to continuous cellular proliferation. Our study determined if TRAIL resistance in pancreatic adenocarcinomas with K-Ras 12 mutations could be overcome by first sensitizing the cells with Benzyl isothiocyanate (BITC). BITC is a component of cruciferous vegetables and a cell cycle …