Khan Mohammad Aslam Aslam, Azim Shafquat, Zubair Haseeb, Bhardwaj Arun, Patel Girijesh Kumar, Khushman Moh'd, Singh Seema, Singh Ajay Pratap
Department of Oncologic Sciences, Mitchell Cancer Institute, University of South Alabama, Mobile, AL 36604, USA.
Departments of Interdisciplinary Clinical Oncology, Mitchell Cancer Institute, University of South Alabama, Mobile, AL 36604, USA.
Int J Mol Sci. 2017 Apr 6;18(4):779. doi: 10.3390/ijms18040779.
Pancreatic cancer (PC) continues to rank among the most lethal cancers. The consistent increase in incidence and mortality has made it the seventh leading cause of cancer-associated deaths globally and the third in the United States. The biggest challenge in combating PC is our insufficient understanding of the molecular mechanism(s) underlying its complex biology. Studies during the last several years have helped identify several putative factors and events, both genetic and epigenetic, as well as some deregulated signaling pathways, with implications in PC onset and progression. In this review article, we make an effort to summarize our current understanding of molecular and cellular events involved in the pathogenesis of pancreatic malignancy. Specifically, we provide up-to-date information on the genetic and epigenetic changes that occur during the initiation and progression of PC and their functional involvement in the pathogenic processes. We also discuss the impact of the tumor microenvironment on the molecular landscape of PC and its role in aggressive disease progression. It is envisioned that a better understanding of these molecular factors and the mechanisms of their actions can help unravel novel diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers and can also be exploited for future targeted therapies.
胰腺癌（PC）仍然是最致命的癌症之一。其发病率和死亡率持续上升，已使其成为全球癌症相关死亡的第七大主要原因，在美国则位列第三。对抗胰腺癌的最大挑战在于我们对其复杂生物学背后分子机制的了解不足。过去几年的研究已帮助识别出几个假定的因素和事件，包括遗传和表观遗传方面的，以及一些失调的信号通路，这些都与胰腺癌的发生和发展有关。在这篇综述文章中，我们努力总结目前对胰腺恶性肿瘤发病机制中涉及的分子和细胞事件的理解。具体而言，我们提供了有关胰腺癌起始和进展过程中发生的遗传和表观遗传变化及其在致病过程中的功能参与的最新信息。我们还讨论了肿瘤微环境对胰腺癌分子格局的影响及其在侵袭性疾病进展中的作用。可以预见，更好地理解这些分子因素及其作用机制有助于揭示新的诊断和预后生物标志物，也可用于未来的靶向治疗。
