Pancreatic cancer is one of the deadliest diseases largely due to difficulty in early diagnosis and the lack of effective treatments. KRAS is mutated in more than 90% of pancreatic cancer patients, and oncogenic KRAS contributes to pancreatic cancer tumorigenesis and progression. In this report, using an oncogenic KRASV12-based pancreatic cancer cell model, we developed a chemical genetic scree...

BACKGROUND Pancreatic cancer represents the fourth-leading cause of cancer death in the United States, with a dismal 5-year survival rate of less than 5%. Despite advancements in screening and early detection of other cancers such as breast and colon cancer, no reliable screening test exists for pancreatic cancer. Subsequently, the majority of patients present with advanced-stage disease leadin...

BACKGROUND Pancreatic cancer is one of the most lethal cancers worldwide. No effective screening methods exist, and available treatment modalities do not effectively treat the disease. Established risk factors for pancreatic cancer, including smoking, chronic pancreatitis, obesity and type 2 diabetes mellitus, collectively account for less than half of all pancreatic cancer cases. Accumulating ...

Pancreatic cancer is one of the most lethal forms of human cancer. Although progress in oncology has improved outcomes in many forms of cancer, little progress has been made in pancreatic carcinoma and the prognosis of this malignancy remains grim. Several molecular abnormalities often present in pancreatic cancer have been defined and include mutations in K-ras, p53, p16, and DPC4 genes. Nucle...

Chromosomal abnormalities, including mutations, deletions and allelic losses of different oncogenes and tumour suppressor genes have been discovered in the DNA of cancer cells and the application of molecular biological techniques now permits identification of these alterations in tumours. Although it has been possible to detect potentially important genetic alterations in tumour material for s...

Kindlin-1 is a novel focal adhesion protein that belongs to the kindlin family. Expression of kindlin-1 has recently been reported in lung and colon cancers, but there have been no studies on its expression in pancreatic cancer. This study aimed to investigate the expression and function of kindlin-1 in pancreatic cancer. Quantitative RT-PCR of Kindlin-1 mRNA was performed in various pancreatic...

miRNAs are small noncoding RNAs that participate in a variety of biologic processes, and dysregulation of miRNA is always associated with cancer development and progression. Aberrant expression of miR-148b has been found in some types of cancer, but its expression and potential biologic role in pancreatic cancer are still largely unknown. In this study, our data showed that miR-148b was signifi...

BACKGROUND Despite the remarkable advances in the early diagnosis and treatment, overall 5-year survival rate of patients with pancreatic cancer is less than 10%. Gemcitabine (GEM), a cytidine nucleoside analogue and ribonucleotide reductase inhibitor, is a primary option for patients with advanced pancreatic cancer; however, its clinical efficacy is extremely limited. This unfavorable clinical...

Emerging evidence has suggested that leptin, an adipokine related to energy homeostasis, plays a role in cancer growth and metastasis. However, its impact on pancreatic cancer is rarely studied. In this study, we found that leptin's functional receptor Ob-Rb was expressed in pancreatic cancer cell lines. Treatment with leptin enhanced the migration and invasion of pancreatic cancer cells but di...

The drug-resistance of pancreatic cancer cells results in poor therapeutic effect. To predict the therapeutic effect of the chemotherapy drugs to specific patients and to reverse the resistance of pancreatic cancer cells are critical for chemotherapy of pancreatic cancer. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) have been reported to play important roles in the genesis of drug-resistance of various cancer types. The...