# Stress-adaptation in obesity-associated pancreatic cancer

> **NIH NIH R37** · THOMAS JEFFERSON UNIVERSITY · 2020 · $356,850

## Abstract

ABSTRACT
Obesity increases the risk for pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDA) by ~ 50% and mortality by more than
2-fold. Strikingly, PDA has the highest death rate among the most commonly diagnosed cancers, and with a
rising occurrence, it is predicted to become the 2nd leading cause of cancer deaths by 2020. The mechanisms
through which obesity promotes PDA are not well understood; however, the prevailing paradigm is that
obesity-associated stress and inflammatory markers play an essential role. Accordingly, stress stimuli
(hypoxia, oxidative-, nutrient-, biomechanical-stress, etc.) are thought to invoke the engagement of stress-
adaptive strategies by cancer cells to enhance their fitness. We have recently demonstrated that non-
membranous organelles termed stress granules, are a novel stress-coping machinery that is mobilized by
KRAS mutant PDA cells under stress to enhance tumor fitness and survival. Our preliminary data provide the
first lines of evidence indicating that stress granules are essential to the development of obesity-associated
PDA, and identified insulin growth factor-1 (IGF-1), a principal mediator of obesity-driven cancer, as a potent
inducer of stress granules. The goal of this proposal is to elucidate the mechanisms by which stress granules
promote obesity-associated PDA and to develop anti-stress granule chemopreventive approaches. We
propose to: 1) determine the role of IGF-1 in stress granule upregulation in obesity-associated PDA, 2)
decipher how stress granules promote obesity-associated PDA, and 3) target stress granules for the
chemoprevention of obesity-associated PDA. Collectively, these studies can establish stress granules as a
novel mechanism through which obesity promotes stress adaptation and PDA development, and inform the
development of new chemopreventive strategies.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 9970192
- **Project number:** 5R37CA230645-03
- **Recipient organization:** THOMAS JEFFERSON UNIVERSITY
- **Principal Investigator:** Elda Grabocka
- **Activity code:** R37 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $356,850
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2018-07-01 → 2023-06-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9970192

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 9970192, Stress-adaptation in obesity-associated pancreatic cancer (5R37CA230645-03). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-22 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/9970192. Licensed CC0.

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