PANCREATIC CANCER PROTEOMICS AT MAYO CLINIC

Pancreatic cancer is the most virulent of the major cancers, with only 4% of patients surviving 5 years or more. The high mortality rate of pancreatic cancer is primarily due to the advanced stage at diagnosis in the majority of cases: by the time of diagnosis, eighty percent of pancreatic carcinomas have spread from the pancreas. However, no good screening tests for pancreatic cancer are currently available. Also, there is a great need to increase our understanding of the causes of pancreatic cancer if we are to make progress in early detection and prevention, and ultimately reduce the devastating impact of this disease.

Development of a reliable diagnostic test for early stage pancreatic cancer is the best way to improve survival. The new field of proteomics provides a new tool to analyze the proteins in blood for possible signs of cancer development. At Mayo, we have begun work to identify the proteins involved in cancer development (called “biomarkers”). It is our hope that identification of these biomarkers may eventually lead to a non-invasive screening test that could be used in people at high risk of pancreatic cancer. We also hope this work may lead to future research into the disease processes of pancreatic cancer and eventual development of new medicines to treat this disease.