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Copyright ©The Author(s) 2015. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastroenterol. Oct 28, 2015; 21(40): 11387-11395
Published online Oct 28, 2015. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v21.i40.11387
Molecular detection of pancreatic neoplasia: Current status and future promise
Shounak Majumder, Suresh T Chari, David A Ahlquist
Shounak Majumder, Suresh T Chari, David A Ahlquist, Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN 55905, United States
Author contributions: Majumder S analyzed the literature; Majumder S, Chari ST and Ahlquist DA wrote the manuscript.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors have no conflict of interest to report.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Dr. Shounak Majumder, MD, Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Mayo Clinic, 200 First Street SW, Rochester, MN 55905, United States. majumder.shounak@mayo.edu
Telephone: +1-507-7741825 Fax: +1-507-2840538
Received: May 29, 2015
Peer-review started: June 3, 2015
First decision: June 23, 2015
Revised: July 15, 2015
Accepted: September 30, 2015
Article in press: September 30, 2015
Published online: October 28, 2015
Processing time: 147 Days and 4.2 Hours
Abstract

Pancreatic cancer is usually diagnosed at an advanced stage and curative resection is feasible in only a small minority of patients at the time of diagnosis. Diagnosis at an early stage is unequivocally associated with better long-term survival. Several candidate molecular markers for early detection are currently under investigation in different phases of discovery and validation. Recent advances in the technology for whole genome, methylome, ribonucleome, and proteome interrogation has enabled rapid advancements in the field of biomarker discovery. In this review we discuss the current status of molecular markers for detection of pancreatic cancer in blood, pancreatic cyst fluid, pancreatic juice and stool and briefly highlight some promising preliminary results of new approaches that have the potential of advancing this field in the near future.

Keywords: Early detection of cancer; Sensitivity and specificity; Pancreatic cancer; Pancreatic juice; Stool; Pancreatic cyst fluid; Biomarkers; Methylation

Core tip: Pancreatic cancer is a leading cause of cancer mortality worldwide. Early detection at a resectable stage is associated with the best long-term prognosis. There are ongoing efforts globally to discover, validate and optimize molecular markers for early diagnosis. The challenge is to develop highly sensitive markers not only for earliest stage cancer but also to accurately detect premalignant lesions with high grade dysplasia that would maximally benefit from resection. In this review, we summarize some of the most promising biomarkers for molecular detection of pancreatic cancer and discuss evolving molecular approaches.