We use flow cytometry to carefully monitor the inflammatory response during the initiation of PanIN formation. Additionally, we show that components of the immune system BGB324 clinical trial are significantly involved in acinar cell damage that occurs during a mouse model of pancreatitis. This damage, along with a genetic activation of Kras, leads to the development of preneoplastic lesions and promotes tumor development (Carriere

et al 2009, Morris et al, in revision). Our study also indicates an important role for the inflammatory response in promoting progression of neoplastic lesions to invasive disease. Clark, CE, Hingorani, SR, Mick, R, Combs, C, Tuveson, DA and Vonderheide, RH. Dynamics of the immune reaction to pancreatic cancer from inception to invasion. Cancer Res. 2007 Oct 1;67(19):9518–27. Morris, JM, Cano, DA, Sekine, S, Wang, SC and Hebrok, M. Beta-catenin serves as a molecular switch between acinar regeneration and Kras induced acinar to ductal metaplasia. In revision. Carriere, C, Young, AL, Gunn,

JR, Longnecker, Trichostatin A manufacturer DS and Korc M. Acute pancreatitis markedly accelerates pancreatic cancer progression in mice expressing oncogenic Kras. Biochem. Biophys. Res. Commun, 2009 May 8;382(3):561–5. Poster No. 37 Modulation of Telomerase by Scutellaria barbata at Transcriptional Level: An in vitro and in vivo Study Christine MN Yow 1 , Ellie SM Chu1, Stephen CW Sze2 1 Department of Health Technoloy & Informatics, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong, Hong Kong, 2 School of Chinese Medicine, LKS Faculty of Medicine, University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, Hong Kong Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) has long been practiced in China over thousands of years. Currently, TCM medications are gaining much attention from modern pharmaceutical institutes and have been studied systematically. Recent studies illustrated that Scutellaria barbata (SB) is one of the potential herbs exhibiting anti-tumor efficacy on several tumors, such as head and neck carcinoma, lung cancer

and ovarian cancer. Human telomerase reverse transcriptase (hTERT), a human catalytic subunit of telomerase, which highly expressed in over 80% human PLEKHB2 cancers, is an indicative marker for treatment efficacy and therapeutic monitoring. In Hong Kong, colorectal cancer ranks the second of the leading cause of cancer death. This study aimed to comparatively study the modulation of hTERT mRNA expression by Scutellaria barbata (SB) at transcriptional level in colorectal cancer cell (HT-29) and the HT-29 immunized BALB/c nude mice models. The efficacy of SB on HT-29 cancer cells was determined by MTT assay; whereas the size of the colon cancer in xenografts was monitored by magnetic resonance interference (MRI) at pre- and post-SB treatment.