Effect of Wnt inhibitors in pancreatic cancer.

Activated Wnt signaling in cancer cells leads to cell proliferation. It has been shown that the Wnt pathway is activated in pancreatic adenocarcinoma cells. Therefore, we tested the effect of Wnt inhibitors in human and murine pancreatic cancer cell lines. The Wnt inhibitors ethacrynic acid (EA), ciclopirox olamine (CIC), piroctone olamine (PO) and griseofulvin (GF) were tested in murine and human pancreatic cancer cell lines with the 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide (MTT) assay. We showed that the Wnt inhibitors significantly reduced cell viability in murine, as well as human pancreatic cancer cell lines. These results may lead to a new therapeutic option with Wnt inhibitors for patients with pancreatic adenocarcinoma.