Long Beach, CA, Jan. 29, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The announcement by a former US Senator of a “Death Sentence” because of his diagnosis of pancreatic cancer has drawn increased attention to this lethal malignancy.
Steve Evans working on cancer tissue samples for Functional Profiling analysis at the lab in the Nagourney Cancer Institute
With a 5-year survival of only 3.3% in advanced disease, pancreatic cancer remains one of the most lethal human tumors. But technology developed by investigators in Southern California at the Nagourney Cancer Institute is offering durable benefit and even cures in the most advanced cases.
Based upon the principle that human cancer is not an abnormal cell but instead an alteration in the tumor’s micro-environment, investigators at the Nagourney Cancer Institute perfected methods to study pancreatic cancer cells in their natural state.
By isolating pancreas cancer cell explants from surgical biopsies exactly as they appear in each patient’s body, without growing or altering their structure, these cells provide a window into how each patient will respond when they are treated with chemotherapy and targeted agents.
Using a Wider Net to Find the Right Drug Treatments
“We start by looking at the NCCN-guideline, FDA-approved drugs and combinations for pancreatic cancer, then expand the selection to novel combinations and finally move to the newest classes of drugs and experimentals, all in a single tissue study.
We have shown that pancreatic cancer is not a death sentence when patients have access to the drugs that work best for their tumors” "We offer patients facing one of the deadliest diagnoses something that many patients have lost: Hope, based on published experience”
Reduces Guessing by Measuring Response in the Lab
For 15 years, oncologists have relied on the combinations, like FOLFIRINOX, that are based on population averages rather than individual biology. “This ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach ignores the complex reality of human tumors.
“With the right treatment, we can improve the chance of response and survival.” Dr. Nagourney observed.
Data That Demands Attention
A 2023 meta-analysis of over 10,000 patients, including 400 with pancreatic cancer, reported at the American Association for Cancer Research showed a 2.04-fold higher response rate (p < 0.001) and a 1.44-fold higher one-year survival (p=0.02).
Call For a “Manhattan Project” for Beating Pancreatic Cancer
With the advent of drugs that specifically target KRAS the most common mutation in pancreatic cancer, and new drug combinations on the horizon we need to establish a “Manhattan Project” using tumor tissue analyses to accelerate patient-specific strategies.
Patients like the former US Senator should expect nothing less.
About Nagourney Cancer Institute: The Nagourney Cancer Institute is a clinical research center in Long Beach, California, pioneering the use of analyzing a patient’s own cancer cells to select the most effective cancer treatments for individual patients. They do not rely on genomic/genetic theory; they rely on cellular reality.
Dr. Robert Nagourney on Fox 11 News talking about metastatic cancer.
About Nagourney Cancer Institute
Nagourney Cancer Institute is a federally and state-licensed laboratory in Long Beach, California, founded in 1995 by Dr. Robert Nagourney. It specializes in functional profiling of living tumor cells via the Ex Vivo Analysis of Programmed Cell Death (EVA-PCD) assay to predict which therapies will be most effective and least toxic for each patient, reducing treatment guesswork and doubling response rates compared to standard approaches.
Press Inquiries
Media Contact: Steve Evans, BS, MA
+1 (562) 989-6455
sevans@nagourneyci.com
Interview Requests: Dr. Robert Nagourney, MD
Cancer Research, Hematology, Oncology
rnagourney@nagourneyci.com
(800) 542-4357
Nagourney Cancer Institute
750 E. 29th Street, Long Beach, CA 90806, USA
https://nagourneycancerinstitute.com/
A video accompanying this announcement is available here: https://youtube.com/watch?v=WFodp0sffGM
