Pancreatic cancer genomics

Abstract

Pancreatic cancer is one of the most lethal malignancies. The overall median survival even with treatment is only 6-9 months, with almost 90% succumbing to the disease within a year of diagnosis. It is characterised by an intense desmoplastic stroma that may contribute to therapeutic resistance, and poses significant challenges for genomic sequencing studies. It is recalcitrant to almost all therapies and consequently remains the fourth leading cause of cancer death in Western societies. Genomic studies are unveiling a vast heterogeneity of mutated genes, and this diversity may explain why conventional clinical trial designs have mostly failed to demonstrate efficacy in unselected patients. ..