So to be very clear first: I am not a scientist, not a medical researcher, don't really follow the field of stem cell research but...a response (on Facebook from "a friend of a friend) to my post yesterday prompts me to throw this info out there.
Now three times in the past few weeks, info has come across the screen about the role of stem cells in pancreatic cancer. Here's the earliest article I can quickly find about this promising area of research.
As one researcher developing a new compound to "stem" the spread of pancreatic cancer put it: "There are bad cancer cells and there are really bad cancer cells." Those really bad ones, it turns out, are stem cells. Traditional chemo, he explained, goes after the bad cancer cells but cannot typically do anything about the really bad ones.
Light goes on in the heads of cancer researchers. Result is that at least three labs that I've heard about are now developing compounds to go after these stem cells. In one case, the trial is not directed at pancreatic cancer specifically but at solid tumors (not blood cancers, for example).
This is really promising research. Should anything understandable to the common person (me) surface, I'll post it. Meanwhile, google "cancer stem cells and pancreatic cancer" and see this short report.