Epigenetics and pancreatic cancer: pathophysiology and novel treatment aspects

Abstract

An improvement in pancreatic cancer treatment represents an urgent medical goal. Late diagnosis and high intrinsic resistance to conventional chemotherapy has led to a dismal overall prognosis that has remained unchanged during the past decades. Increasing knowledge about the molecular pathogenesis of the disease has shown that genetic alterations, such as mutations of K-ras, and especially epigenetic dysregulation of tumor-associated genes, such as silencing of the tumor suppressor p16(ink4a), are hallmarks of pancreatic cancer. Here, we describe genes that are commonly affected by epigenetic dysregulation in pancreatic cancer via DNA methylation, histone acetylation or miRNA (microRNA) expression, and review the implications on pancreatic cancer biology such as epithelial-mesenchymal transition, morphological pattern formation, or cancer stem cell regulation during carcinogenesis from PanIN (pancreatic intraepithelial lesions) to invasive cancer and resistance development. Epigenetic drugs, such as DNA methyltransferases or histone deactylase inhibitors, have shown promising preclinical results in pancreatic cancer and are currently in early phases of clinical development. Combinations of epigenetic drugs with established cytotoxic drugs or targeted therapies are promising approaches to improve the poor response and survival rate of pancreatic cancer patients.

Keywords: DNA methylation; Epigenetics; Epithelial-mesenchymal transition; Histone modification; Pancreatic cancer; Targeted therapy; microRNA.

Figure 1

Precursor lesions of pancreatic cancer with their typical morphologic and genetic as well epigenetic characteristics. PanIN: Pancreatic intraepithelial lesions; IPMN: Intraductal papillary mucinous neoplasms; MCN: Mucinous cystic neoplasms; RELN: Reelin.