Employing Metabolism to Improve the Diagnosis and Treatment of Pancreatic Cancer

Abstract

Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma is on pace to become the second leading cause of cancer-related death. The high mortality rate results from a lack of methods for early detection and the inability to successfully treat patients once diagnosed. Pancreatic cancer cells have extensively reprogrammed metabolism, which is driven by oncogene-mediated cell-autonomous pathways, the unique physiology of the tumor microenvironment, and interactions with non-cancer cells. In this review, we discuss how recent efforts delineating rewired metabolic networks in pancreatic cancer have revealed new in-roads to develop detection and treatment strategies for this dreadful disease.

Keywords: FDG-PET; HP-MRI; Kras; PDAC; metabolic crosstalk; metabolic imaging; metabolic reprogramming; pancreatic cancer; stroma; tumor metabolism.