Editorial
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2015. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastrointest Oncol. Oct 15, 2015; 7(10): 172-177
Published online Oct 15, 2015. doi: 10.4251/wjgo.v7.i10.172
Targeted therapies for pancreatic adenocarcinoma: Where do we stand, how far can we go?
Dimitra Grapsa, Muhammad Wasif Saif, Konstantinos Syrigos
Dimitra Grapsa, Konstantinos Syrigos, Oncology Unit, 3rd Department of Medicine, “Sotiria” General Hospital, Athens University School of Medicine, 11527 Athens, Greece
Muhammad Wasif Saif, Tufts Cancer Center, Tufts University School of Medicine, Boston, MA 02111, United States
Author contributions: Grapsa D drafted the manuscript; Saif MW and Syrigos K revised the manuscript for intellectual content.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare that they have no relevant conflicts of interest.
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: Konstantinos Syrigos, MD, PhD, Professor, Head, Oncology Unit, 3rd Department of Medicine, “Sotiria” General Hospital, Athens University School of Medicine, Mesogion 152, 11527 Athens, Greece. knsyrigos@usa.net
Telephone: +30-210-7475034 Fax: +30-210-7781035
Received: May 26, 2015
Peer-review started: May 28, 2015
First decision: June 18, 2015
Revised: July 10, 2015
Accepted: August 30, 2015
Article in press: August 31, 2015
Published online: October 15, 2015
Processing time: 146 Days and 4 Hours
Abstract

Pancreatic adenocarcinoma (usually referred to as pancreatic cancer) is a highly lethal and aggressive malignancy with a disease-related mortality almost equaling its incidence, and one of the most challenging cancers to treat. The notorious resistance of pancreatic cancer not only to conventional cytotoxic therapies but also to almost all targeted agents developed to date, continues to puzzle the oncological community and represents one of the biggest hurdles to reducing the death toll from this ominous disease. This editorial highlights the most important recent advances in preclinical and clinical research, with regards to targeted therapeutics for pancreatic cancer, outlines current challenges and provides an overview of potential future perspectives in this rapidly evolving field.

Keywords: Clinical; Cytotoxic chemotherapy; Pancreatic cancer; Preclinical; Targeted agents

Core tip: Expansion of our knowledge regarding the molecular basis of pancreatic cancer has facilitated the development of a significant number of innovative targeted therapies for this lethal disease. Almost all these agents have, nevertheless, failed to produce statistically significant survival benefits when tested in clinical trial settings; therefore, successful clinical translation of preclinical advancements in pancreatic cancer research has yet to be materialized. Future treatment options might include multi-targeted and individualized molecular therapies, ideally guided by patient-specific genomic data, in combination with conventional cytotoxic or other regimens.