| [ Summary ] |
The over-all 5-year survival rate is only 4.9 % for pancreatic cancer. However, the survival rate for resected cases is 13.5 %. Therefore, it is very important to detect it at a resectable stage to improve the prognosis for this deadly disease. Both early detection and accurate staging are required to provide information for genetic and molecular diagnoses. Unfortunately, no useful methods are yet available for clinical use in these cases. Some methods have been developed, but none are widely used. These methods include the detection of mutated KRAS in pancreatic juice and / or stool, detection of mutated DNA and / or RNA in the peripheral blood, FISH analysis using cells collected with ERCP. Further important information by genetic and molecular diagnoses is required such as metastasis and / or prognosis, response to adjuvant chemotherapy and / or radiotherapy, but these attempts are still under investigation. Molecular target therapy is indispensable for future clinical management of patients with pancreatic cancer. For this purpose, development of diagnostic strategies including genetic and molecular diagnoses based on thorough understanding of molecular mechanisms is indispensable. |