Anti-tumor necrosis factor therapy inhibits pancreatic tumor growth and metastasis.

Chronic inflammation has been implicated in the pathogenesis of many severe autoimmune disorders, as well as in diabetes, pulmonary diseases, and cancer. Inflammation accompanies most solid cancers including pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC), one of the most fatal cancers with surgery being the only curative therapeutic approach currently available. In the present work, we investigated the role of the major proinflammatory cytokine tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNFalpha) in the malignancy of PDAC cells in vitro and in vivo.

Improvement of objective GERD parameters after radiofrequency energy delivery: a European study.

Objective: The Stretta procedure is an endoluminal radiofrequency energy delivery system for the treatment of gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD). The purpose of this study was to present, for the first time, the Stretta treatment experience from European centers.

Material And Methods: Sixty patients with a history of GERD from six European centers underwent Stretta treatment from May 2001 to June 2003.

Role of caspases in CD95L- and TRAIL-induced non-apoptotic signalling in pancreatic tumour cells.

The CD95 and TRAIL death receptors can potently stimulate proinflammatory signalling, especially in apoptosis resistant cells. Here, we show that caspases are of cell type-specific relevance for non-apoptotic death receptor signalling in pancreatic tumour cells. Inhibition of caspases by zVAD-fmk strongly enhanced the proinflammatory response in PancTuI, BxPc3 and Panc89 cells, but inhibited this response in Colo357 cells as well as in apoptosis-resistant Colo357-BclxL cells overexpressing BclxL.