Department of Molecular Pathology, Tohoku University School of Medicine, Sendai, Miyagi 980-8575, Japan; Center for Regulatory Epigenome and Diseases, Tohoku University School of Medicine, Sendai, Miyagi 980-8575, Japan.
Cancer Lett. 2014 Jan 28;342(2):231-7. doi: 10.1016/j.canlet.2012.03.022. Epub 2012 Mar 23.
The prognosis of pancreatic cancer is extremely poor, mainly because of its aggressive biological behavior and late onset of symptoms for clinical diagnosis; these impose limitations on therapeutic intervention. Deeper genomic sequencing analyses of pancreatic cancers revealed 12 core pathways and a long duration, nearly 20 years from initiation to distant metastases. This evidence will offer a broader aspect and time window of opportunity for early detection, thus preventing deaths from this cruel cancer. Epigenetic biomarkers can be utilized for assessing cancer risk, early detection, and predicting prognosis and therapeutic responses. In this review, we briefly summarize relevant issues associated with pancreatic cancer progression and recent advances in epigenetic biomarkers such as DNA methylation, miRNAs, satellite repeats, and histone modifications for early diagnosis.
胰腺癌的预后极差，主要是因为其具有侵袭性的生物学行为和症状出现较晚，导致临床诊断困难；这限制了治疗干预的效果。对胰腺癌进行更深入的基因组测序分析揭示了 12 条核心途径和一个漫长的过程，从起始到远处转移将近 20 年。这一证据为早期检测提供了更广泛的角度和时间窗口，从而防止人们死于这种残酷的癌症。表观遗传生物标志物可用于评估癌症风险、早期检测以及预测预后和治疗反应。在这篇综述中，我们简要总结了与胰腺癌进展相关的问题，以及表观遗传生物标志物（如 DNA 甲基化、miRNAs、卫星重复序列和组蛋白修饰）在早期诊断方面的最新进展。
