Simple Serum Pancreatic Ductal Adenocarcinoma (PDAC) Protein Biomarkers—Is There Anything in Sight?

Abstract

A poor PDAC prognosis is due to a lack of effective treatment and late diagnosis. The early detection of PDAC could significantly decrease mortality and save lives. Idealbiomarkers for PDAC should be cost-effective, detectable in easily accessible biological material, and present in sufficient concentration in the earliest possible phase of the disease. This review addresses newly selected, simple protein biomarkers—new ones such as thrombospondin-2, insulin-linked binding protein 2, lysophosphatidic acid, and autotaxin and conventional ones such as Ca19-9, inflammatory factors, and coagulation factors. Their possible use in the early detection of PDAC, differentiation from benign diseases, prognosis, and treatment response prediction is discussed. We also address the usefulness of possible combinations of biomarkers in diagnostic panels.

LHPP Inhibits the Viability, Migration, and Proliferation of PDAC Cells and Significantly Affects the Expression of SDC1 and S100p

“…However, the clinical application is limited due to suboptimal specificity and sensitivity. [4][5][6] Therefore, it is essential to explore new effective PDAC therapeutic targets and prognostic factors to adjust the treatment strategy for PDAC. Protein phosphatases play a critical role in cellular signaling pathways, and their dysregulated expression is significantly involved in cancer development.…”

“…However, the clinical application is limited due to suboptimal specificity and sensitivity. 4 ‐ 6 Therefore, it is essential to explore new effective PDAC therapeutic targets and prognostic factors to adjust the treatment strategy for PDAC.…”

Desmoplastic stromal signatures predict patient outcomes in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma

“…Our unified models produced AUCs of 0.872–0.903 on an independent, blinded testing cohort, representing superior performance compared with existing magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)- and lab-value-based ML models of PDAC classification (AUCs: ∼0.801–0.900). 47 , 48 Furthermore, the ML spatial signature distinguished OS by a median of nearly 2 years—a substantial finding for a disease with a 5-year survival rate of 20%–25% in the postoperative setting. 3 This approach could be used to stratify patients who may require more intensive therapy.…”

Pancreatic Incidentaloma

“…Novel biomarkers, such as non-coding RNAs, exosomes, and circulating DNA, have been reported to improve the accuracy of diagnosis and could contribute to the facilitation of the incidental PDAC diagnosis [ 94 , 95 , 96 ]. However, intensive studies are still in progress to identify both diagnostic, predictive and prognostic markers that would facilitate the diagnosis of PDAC detected incidentally [ 97 ].…”