Expression Profiling of Pancreatic Ductal Adenocarcinoma

Abstract

Pancreatic cancer is a uniquely challenging cancer. First, it is a deadly cancer. Pancreatic cancer is the fourth leading cause of cancer death in men and in women, and, despite advances in the treatment of other types of cancer, pancreatic cancer continues to have one of the highest mortality rates of any malignancy. Each year in the U.S. approx 29,000 patients are diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, and approx 29,000 will die of their disease (1). The poor prognosis for patients with pancreatic cancer is, in large part, due to the fact that almost all patients are diagnosed at an advanced stage of disease, as no known tumor markers exist that could be used to screen for pancreatic cancer at an earlier, potentially curative stage. This is a particular problem for those patients with a strong familial history of pancreatic cancer, who may have up to a 57-fold greater risk of developing pancreatic cancer in their lifetime (2,3). Second, even when a mass caused by a pancreatic cancer is identified, it can be very difficult to establish a definitive diagnosis. Deadly infiltrating adenocarcinomas of the pancreas can be so well differentiated that it can be difficult, and even at times impossible, to distinguish cancer from reactive changes histologically. Third, even when the diagnosis can be firmly established, pancreatic cancer simply does not respond to current chemotherapeutic or radiation therapies. Perhaps more than any other tumor type, a better understanding of the gene expression of pancreatic cancer is urgently needed.