Tumor Heterogeneity in Pancreatic Adenocarcinoma

Abstract

Pancreatic adenocarcinoma is one of the deadliest malignancies worldwide, mainly due to frequent diagnosis at an advanced stage and its strong chemoresistance. Tumor heterogeneity is evident at the histological level, both between tumors and even within a tumor. Recent high-throughput analyses have confirmed that intertumor heterogeneity is greater than intratumor heterogeneity that is mostly driven by successive catastrophic genetic events in the early stage and by epigenetic modifications in the metastatic stage. While this heterogeneity may complicate the search for a universal cure, these analyses have distinguished several subtypes at the genomic, transcriptomic, and metabolomic levels that offer, for some, new therapeutic opportunities.

Keywords: Genetic evolution; Pancreatic adenocarcinoma; Transcriptomic subtypes; Tumor heterogeneity.