30 April 2012 Last updated at 02:45 ET

Aggressive pancreatic tumours may be treatable with a new class of drugs, according to Cancer Research UK

Less than one in five people with this form of cancer are still alive a year after being diagnosed.

A study, published in the journal Nature, showed that a gene was being switched off in the cancerous cells.

The reseachers said drugs were already being tested which had the potential to turn the gene back on, to stop the spread of the cancer.

Around 7,800 people in the UK are diagnosed with pancreatic cancer every year and it is the fifth most deadly cancer.

These results raise the possibility that a class of promising new cancer drugs may be effective at treating some pancreatic cancers

Studies in mice showed that a gene called USP9x, which normally stops a cell from dividing uncontrollably, is switched off in some pancreatic cancer cells.

The gene is not mutated, but other proteins and chemicals become stuck to it and turn the gene off.

Studies then showed that UPS9x was being turned off in human pancreatic cancer.

The rest is here:
Pancreatic cancer gene discovery

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