Pancreatic cancer - Molecular alterations

Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma is a dismal disease with a median survival below 6 months and a 5 year survival rate below 1%. High mortality is due to early lymphatic and hematogenic dissemination. Effective therapies for local advanced or metastatic tumors are missing and curative resected patients relapse in over 80% of the cases. Together this findings reflects the aggressive biology of the disease. Here we describe molecular mechanisms leading to unrestrained proliferation, insensitivity to growth inhibitory signals, evasion of apoptosis, limitless replicative potential, tissue invasion, metastasis and sustained angiogenesis.