Prognostic Indicators of Survival in Pancreatic Tumor Removal Identified

Preoperative assessment of the prognostic biomarkers might help in planning treatment strategies to improve patient outcomes.

Pancreatic cancer starts when cells in the pancreas start to grow out of control. The pancreas is an organ that sits behind the stomach.

The exocrine cells and endocrine cells of the pancreas form different types of tumors. It’s very important to know if the cancer in the pancreas is an exocrine or endocrine cancer. A new study of patients who underwent curative surgical removal of a pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma showed that two of the nine preoperative factors analyzed were strongly predictive of poor prognosis regardless of the tumor stage.

How Pancreatic Tumors Exploit Cellular Plasticity to Change into Resistant Type
Pancreatic cancer cells are characterized by remarkable plasticity, cellular changes that make this malignancy so difficult to treat.

‘Tumors of the endocrine pancreas are uncommon, making up less than 5% of all pancreatic cancers. As a group, they are often called pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors or islet cell tumors.’

Preoperative assessment of these prognostic biomarkers might help in planning treatment strategies to improve patient outcomes, according to an article published in Journal of Pancreatic Cancer, a peer-reviewed open access publication from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers. The article is available on the Journal of Pancreatic Cancer website.

The article entitled "C-Reactive Protein/Albumin Ratio and Prognostic Nutritional Index Are Strong Prognostic Indicators of Survival in Resected Pancreatic Ductal Adenocarcinoma," was coauthored by Masahide Ikeguchi, Takehiko Hanaki, Kanenori Endo, Kazunori Suzuki, Seiichi Nakamura, Takashi Sawata, and Tetsu Shimizu from Tottori Prefectural Central Hospital, Tottori, Japan.

The researchers evaluated the following indicators before tumor resection in 43 patients treated over 9 years: operative procedure, operation time, tumor stage, measures of preoperative serum amylase, C-reactive protein/albumin ratio, neutrophil/lymphocyte ratio, prognostic nutritional index, carcinoembryonic antigen, and carbohydrate antigen 19-9.

New Device can Deliver Cocktail of Drugs to Pancreatic Tumors
University of North Carolina experts have revealed that an implantable device can deliver a particularly toxic cocktail of drugs directly to pancreatic tumors.

"In this article, the authors provide a comprehensive analysis of prognostic indicators for patients with pancreatic cancer," says Journal of Pancreatic Cancer Editor-in-Chief Charles J. Yeo, MD, Department of Surgery, Thomas Jefferson University.

Source-Eurekalert

New Device Hits Pancreatic Tumors With Toxic 4-Drug Cocktail, Sparing the Body
An implantable device that can deliver a particularly toxic cocktail of drugs directly to pancreatic tumors to stunt their growth has been developed by researchers.

Gene Expression Patterns in Pancreatic Tumor Cells Identified in MGH Study
New research reveals that analysis of circulating tumor cells in a mouse model of pancreatic cancer identified distinct patterns of gene expression.