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Breaching the Fortress

Pancreatic cancer cells (purple) build a dense, protective fortress of tissue to hide from treatment and the immune system. Learning to dismantle these walls can help therapies reach the tumour and improve patient survival rates.

Created | 2026

This colourful image shows the protective fortress that pancreatic cancer builds around itself. The bright purple spots are the cancer cells, shown trapped inside a thick, tangled web of scar tissue that acts like a wall and blocks medicine from getting inside.

Raphaël and Trinity try to map this maze in their research, studying how these walls are built and how to tear them down. This is incredibly important because once the walls are gone, potentially life-saving treatments and the body’s own immune system can finally reach the cancer.

With no curative treatment and more people being diagnosed every year, pancreatic cancer is one of the world’s most dangerous diseases, making it urgent to find new and better ways to treat it.