Pankreaskarzinom – neue Konzepte?

Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma is a growing problem in society. Besides demographic developments, this is due to late diagnosis and pronounced tumor heterogeneity. Recently, improvements in survival of patients undergoing surgery and adjuvant chemotherapy, derived from palliative therapy regimens, have been achieved. Discrete successes have also been achieved in palliative chemotherapy for advanced pancreatic carcinomas. However, overall there is a lack of targeted therapy options. As a result of technological progress in the field of gene sequencing, tumors can now be comprehensively characterized—within a temporally and financially feasible framework. At the same time, individual three-dimensional cell cultures, so-called organoids, can be generated and tested with high predictive value for the response of certain chemotherapeutic agents. Overall, this personalized molecular and functional analysis of pancreatic carcinomas gives hope to improving the long-term prognosis of pancreatic cancer patients by identifying relevant, therapeutically accessible subgroups.