State-of-the-Art and Upcoming Innovations in Pancreatic Cancer Care: A Step Forward to Precision Medicine

Abstract

Pancreatic cancer remains a social and medical burden despite the tremendous advances that medicine has made in the last two decades. The incidence of pancreatic cancer is increasing, and it continues to be associated with high mortality and morbidity rates. The difficulty of early diagnosis (the lack of specific symptoms and biomarkers at early stages), the aggressiveness of the disease, and its resistance to systemic therapies are the main factors for the poor prognosis of pancreatic cancer. The only curative treatment for pancreatic cancer is surgery, but the vast majority of patients with pancreatic cancer have advanced disease at the time of diagnosis. Pancreatic surgery is among the most challenging surgical procedures, but recent improvements in surgical techniques, careful patient selection, and the availability of minimally invasive techniques (e.g., robotic surgery) have dramatically reduced the morbidity and mortality associated with pancreatic surgery. Patients who are not candidates for surgery may benefit from locoregional and systemic therapy. In some cases (e.g., patients for whom marginal resection is feasible), systemic therapy may be considered a bridge to surgery to allow downstaging of the cancer; in other cases (e.g., metastatic disease), systemic therapy is considered the standard approach with the goal of prolonging patient survival. The complexity of patients with pancreatic cancer requires a personalized and multidisciplinary approach to choose the best treatment for each clinical situation. The aim of this article is to provide a literature review of the available treatments for the different stages of pancreatic cancer.

Pancreatic Cancer-Secreted Proteins: Targeting Their Functions in Tumor Microenvironment

“…However, even in the early stages, the prognosis is poor, with median survival rates with surgery alone in this group of patients being in the order of 12 months, and the five-year survival rate is between 5 and 10%. Median survival for stages III and IV is 10 and 6 months, respectively [7,8].…”

Advancing Precision Medicine: VAE Enhanced Predictions of Pancreatic Cancer Patient Survival in Local Hospital

“…In addition to enhancing early-stage diagnosis, there is an urgent need to innovate therapeutic strategies aimed at reducing mortality among late-stage PC patients. Precision medicine (PM) is increasingly recognized as a viable approach and has garnered considerable attention in recent years [7], [8]. A critical component of implementing PM is the judicious selection of patients who are suitable candidates for novel precision healthcare interventions [9].…”

In vitro biological studies and computational prediction-based analyses of pyrazolo[1,5-a]pyrimidine derivatives

“…The therapy strategy for cancer depends on the organ affected, the rate of spread, and the patient's health state. 24 Cancer drug therapy is divided into classes according to its action mechanism as follows: (I) alkylating agents include temozolomide, cisplatin, and melphalan. These drugs add an alkyl group to the DNA of cells, damaging it; this mechanism functions at all phases of the cell cycle.…”