The Role of Precision Medicine in Pancreatic Cancer: Challenges for Targeted Therapy, Immune Modulating Treatment, Early Detection, and Less Invasive Operations

Abstract

Pancreatic cancer is one of the most lethal types of cancer due to its heterogeneous nature and the difficulty of detecting lesions in the pancreas during the early stages of tumorigenesis. Until recently, progress has been slow in developing methods to detect pancreatic lesions early. However, recent advances in genetics, biomarkers, imaging, and surgical procedures have aided the early detection of such lesions before the incurable metastatic disease state. Precision medicine has benefited pancreatic cancer patients in such areas as genetics, more targeted approaches to therapy, immunotherapy advances, and the discovery of more ideal biomarkers. In this review, the various studies and trials in these areas were reviewed to illustrate the promise of precision medicine.