Pancreatic Cancer Is Actually 4 Different Diseases
The discovery means more potential ways to treat this cancer.
A new genomic analysis of over 450 pancreatic tumors reveals that the cancer may be more accurately classified as four different diseases, each with its own characteristics and survival rates.
This insight provides potential new avenues for treatment, as patients and doctors may one day be able to customize targeted treatments based on the type of pancreatic cancer they have.
Four distinct subcategories of the disease were identified by researchers from the Australian Pancreatic Cancer Genome Initiative and the Garvan Institute of Medical Research: squamous, pancreatic progenitor, immunogenic and aberrantly differentiated endocrine exocrine, or ADEX.
"We have previously shown that pancreatic cancer is not one disease but several -- but now we have identified distinct subgroups in detail, along with the genetic drivers that underpin them,” said researcher Amber Johns in a statement.
