Scientists discovered that a gene called ATDC (also known as TRIM29) may be vital to the explanation of the aggressive nature of pancreatic cancer, according to a new study. 

A team of researchers used bread to develop pancreatic cancer (similar to the strain found in humans) in mice to be tested on for the study. The researchers also studied samples of pancreatic cancer tissue and pre-invasive pancreatic lesions.

The findings suggest that the ATDC gene encourages a tumor's invasiveness and spread in the early course of pancreatic cancer because it helped develop pancreatic cancer stem cells, a small group of cells in the pancreatic tumor that spurs its growth and spread; it helps cancer cells change state in a process called "epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition," or EMT, which results in cells being more loosely associated, allowing them to migrate more easily, reported Medical News Today.

"We know that patients with the earliest stage of pancreatic cancer have a survival rate of only 30 percent. This suggests that even in that very early stage of invasive cancer there are already cells that have spread to distant parts of the body," Dr. Diane M. Simeone, director of the Pancreatic Cancer Center at the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center in Ann Arbor, and the lead author in the study, told Medical News Today.  

The researchers believe if this ATDC gene is targeted it may help slow down how aggressively pancreatic cancer spreads. 

They are already testing this theory with a 3D structure that they created to be used as a model for drug development. 

The researchers also suggest that the ATDC gene could play a similar role in other types of cancer, such as ovarian, bladder, colorectal and lung cancer, as well as multiple myeloma, reported Medical News Today.

There were more than 39,500 pancreatic cancer deaths in 2014, which accounted for about six percent of all cancer deaths, according to the National Cancer Institute. 

The study was published in the journal Genes and Development.