BACKGROUND: Pancreatic cancer(PC) is usually diagnosed at the late-stage and therefore, has widespread metastasis and a very high mortality rate. The mechanisms underlying PC metastasis are not well understood. Rec...BACKGROUND: Pancreatic cancer(PC) is usually diagnosed at the late-stage and therefore, has widespread metastasis and a very high mortality rate. The mechanisms underlying PC metastasis are not well understood. Recent advances in genomic sequencing have identified groups of gene mutations that affect PC metastasis, but studies elucidating their roles are lacking. The present review was to investigate the molecular mechanisms of PC metastasis.DATA SOURCES: Relevant articles on PC metastasis were searched in MEDLINE via Pub Med prior to April 2015. The search was limited in English publications.RESULTS: PC metastatic cascades are multi-factorial events including both intrinsic and extrinsic elements. This review highlights the most important genetic alterations and other mechanisms that account for PC invasion and metastasis, with particular regard to epithelial-mesenchymal transition, inflammation, stress response, and circulating tumor cells.CONCLUSIONS: Analyses of relevant gene functions and signaling pathways are needed to establish the gene regulatory network and to define the pivotal modulators. Another promising area of study is the genotyping and phenotyping of circulating tumor cells, which could lead to a new era of personalized therapy by identifying specific markers and targets.展开更多
Pancreatic cancer (PC), a deadly malignancy with an overall 5-year survival rate of 5% to 15%, is ranked as the seventh leading cause of cancer death in the world in spite of its low occurrence rate.[1,2] Early detect...Pancreatic cancer (PC), a deadly malignancy with an overall 5-year survival rate of 5% to 15%, is ranked as the seventh leading cause of cancer death in the world in spite of its low occurrence rate.[1,2] Early detection appears to be the most effective approach to improve the overall survival of patients with PC. However, the difficulty in early detection of PC is a lack of specific symptoms and reliable biomarkers. Currently, carbohydrate antigen 19-9 (CA 19-9) is a serum biomarker that is widely used in PC detection. However, 10% of patients with PC cannot produce CA 19-9 and serum CA 19-9 is frequently absent in patients with early-stage cancer. Furthermore, CA 19-9 is often found to be elevated in benign conditions or in other cancers, making its utility limited. Therefore, it is important to identify new diagnostic biomarkers to improve PC detection.展开更多
基金supported by grants from the National Natural Science Foundation of China(81272767 and 81201734)
文摘BACKGROUND: Pancreatic cancer(PC) is usually diagnosed at the late-stage and therefore, has widespread metastasis and a very high mortality rate. The mechanisms underlying PC metastasis are not well understood. Recent advances in genomic sequencing have identified groups of gene mutations that affect PC metastasis, but studies elucidating their roles are lacking. The present review was to investigate the molecular mechanisms of PC metastasis.DATA SOURCES: Relevant articles on PC metastasis were searched in MEDLINE via Pub Med prior to April 2015. The search was limited in English publications.RESULTS: PC metastatic cascades are multi-factorial events including both intrinsic and extrinsic elements. This review highlights the most important genetic alterations and other mechanisms that account for PC invasion and metastasis, with particular regard to epithelial-mesenchymal transition, inflammation, stress response, and circulating tumor cells.CONCLUSIONS: Analyses of relevant gene functions and signaling pathways are needed to establish the gene regulatory network and to define the pivotal modulators. Another promising area of study is the genotyping and phenotyping of circulating tumor cells, which could lead to a new era of personalized therapy by identifying specific markers and targets.
文摘Pancreatic cancer (PC), a deadly malignancy with an overall 5-year survival rate of 5% to 15%, is ranked as the seventh leading cause of cancer death in the world in spite of its low occurrence rate.[1,2] Early detection appears to be the most effective approach to improve the overall survival of patients with PC. However, the difficulty in early detection of PC is a lack of specific symptoms and reliable biomarkers. Currently, carbohydrate antigen 19-9 (CA 19-9) is a serum biomarker that is widely used in PC detection. However, 10% of patients with PC cannot produce CA 19-9 and serum CA 19-9 is frequently absent in patients with early-stage cancer. Furthermore, CA 19-9 is often found to be elevated in benign conditions or in other cancers, making its utility limited. Therefore, it is important to identify new diagnostic biomarkers to improve PC detection.