Giving in Action - Fall 2024

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ARE SOME CANCER CELLS PREDESTINED TO SPREAD? Geisel Researchers Aim to Uncover Underlying Cellular Triggers of Metastatic Pancreatic Cancer By Ashley Festa

As a historian might create a family tree to study the relationships between ancestors and descendants, researchers at the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth are tracking the lineage of pancreatic cancer cells to discover which ones will become metastatic, spreading to other parts of the body and posing the greatest risk to a patient’s life. This genealogical information may one day lead to better, more targeted treatments and improved patient outcomes for this highly deadly disease.

“Many patients with pancreatic cancer die due to metastatic disease. But we don’t have a good understanding as to why the disease spreads. What is different about the cells that leave the pancreas and go elsewhere?” says Aaron McKenna, PhD, assistant professor of molecular and systems biology at Geisel and Dartmouth Cancer Center. “We’re interested in how tumor cells evolve over time. Our lab has technology that follows how that happens.”

Aaron McKenna, PhD, assistant professor of molecular and systems biology at Geisel and Dartmouth Cancer Center, investigates the cellular lineage of pancreatic cancer with his team, which includes Geisel MD/PhD student Abigail Marshall (left).

DARTMOUTH HEALTH | GEISEL SCHOOL OF MEDICINE • 14


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