A team of researchers has found that pancreatic cancer cells can be destroyed though suing a combination of two drugs. This could lead to the development of new and effective treatment for the disease.

Cancer Research UKs Cambridge Research Institute conducted in the research in which researchers showed in mice that a combination of a chemotherapy drug called gemcitabine and an experimental drug called MRK003 starts a chain reaction that destroys cancer cells.

The process multiplies the effect of each drug on its own and destroys the cells. This could become the basis for the development of new treatments. The MRK003 is found to block cell signals in pancreatic cancer cells and thus stops nutrients from getting to tumours.

Prof David Tuveson, the study's author said, "We've discovered why these two drugs together set off a domino effect of molecular activity to switch off cell survival processes and destroy pancreatic cancer cells."

When the effects were combined with gemcitabine, a drug that is already used to treat pancreatic cancer, it resulted in destroying the cancer cells in the clinical research.

The study is published in the Journal of Experimental Medicine.