Opko Health Inc (OPK)

[joe_techi]

I wonder if RAYALDEE could play a role in pancreatic cancer treatment? Referencing the attached article (not OPK), "the team’s plan is to mount a clinical trial to test a provocative new hypothesis: that treatment with synthetic vitamin D can make notoriously treatment-resistant pancreas tumors vulnerable to a patient’s immune system."

"In previous research, Dr. Evans and his lab discovered that in a quiescent state, stellate cells have high levels of vitamin D. But when the cells become activated, the vitamin D is rapidly destroyed. Treatment with a synthetic form of vitamin D succeeded in deactivating the stellate cells in a petri dish, essentially disabling the tumor’s defenses against treatment or immune attack.

Then they tried the same treatment combined with chemotherapy in mice with pancreatic cancer. The result, published in Cell in 2014: The mice lived 50% longer on average than those given chemo alone.

The synthetic vitamin D “gets rid of the invisibility shield and creates the magic,” Dr. Evans says."


http://www.wsj.com/articles/physicians-and-physicists-join-forces-to-fight-pancreatic-cancer-1474855741