Giving the chemotherapy agent gemcitabine with an experimental drug called MRK003 sets off a chain of events that ultimately kills cancer cells, studies in mice show.
Patients are now testing the treatment to see if it will work for them.
The Cancer Research UK-funded trials are being carried out in Cambridge.
Father-of-two Richard Griffiths, 41, from Coventry, has been on the trial since being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in May 2011.
"After six cycles of treatment, a scan showed the tumours had reduced and so I have continued with the treatment," he said.
"The trial gives you hope – I really feel I can do this with the science behind me."
Cancer Research UK says it is prioritising research into pancreatic cancer because the survival rate still remains dismally low.
About 8,000 people in the UK are diagnosed with pancreatic cancer each year, and the disease is the fifth most common cause of cancer death in the UK.