Pancreatic cancer is one of the most aggressive and lethal human cancers, with more than 200, 000 deaths worldwide every year. Despite recent efforts, conventional treatment approaches, such as surgery, classic chemotherapy, radiotherapy, biologic therapy and palliative care have only slightly improved patient outcomes. Among the conventional chemotherapies the combination of abraxane (nab-pacl...

Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is the fourth leading cause of cancer death in the USA with a 5-year survival rate less than 3% to 5%. Gemcitabine remains as a standard care for PDAC patients. Although protein neddylation is abnormally activated in many human cancers, whether neddylation dysregulation is involved in PDAC and whether targeting neddylation would sensitize pancreatic cance...

Pancreatic cancer is one of the most lethal malignancies and the fourth leading cause of cancer-related deaths worldwide, because of its aggressive and highly metastatic ability even in its early stages. Cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs) have been reported to be vital to pancreatic cancer progression via regulating tumorigenesis and metastasis. Studies have shown that CAFs also mediate epith...

BACKGROUND Improvement in the prognosis of patients with pancreatic cancer, novel effective screening and diagnostic strategies and treatments are needed. Recent advances in the understanding of pancreatic carcinogenesis and tumor microenvironment have allowed identification of biomarkers for screening, diagnosis and prediction of cancer treatments, including novel therapies targeting specific ...

PURPOSE In spite of intense research efforts, pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma remains one of the most deadly malignancies in the world. We and others have previously identified a subpopulation of pancreatic cancer stem cells within the tumor as a critical therapeutic target and additionally shown that the tumor stroma represents not only a restrictive barrier for successful drug delivery, but ...

Defeating pancreatic cancer resistance to the chemotherapeutic drug gemcitabine remains a challenge to treat this deadly cancer. Targeting the sphingolipid metabolism for improving tumor chemosensitivity has recently emerged as a promising strategy. The fine balance between intracellular levels of the prosurvival sphingosine-1-phosphate (S1P) and the proapoptotic ceramide sphingolipids determin...

Loss of pancreatic β cells is involved in pathogenesis of gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM). Recently, several studies have elucidated the connection between microRNAs (miRNAs) and diabetes mellitus (DM), but the role of miRNAs in GDM remains unclear. The aim of this study was to evaluate the potential functions of miRNAs in GDM and to investigate the underlying mechanisms of action. First, w...

Primary pancreatic carcinoma has an unfavourable prognosis and standard treatment strategies mostly fail in advanced cases. Virotherapy might overcome this resistance to current treatment modalities. However, data from clinical studies with oncolytic viruses, including replicating adenoviral (Ad) vectors, have shown only limited activity against pancreatic cancer and other carcinomas. Since pan...

Therapy-resistance and postoperative recurrence are causes of the poor prognosis in pancreatic cancer. Conventional therapies have a limited impact on the control of pancreatic cancer, resulting in the rapid re-growth of the tumor. The indispensable role of tumor-stromal interaction, which acts as a defender of cancer cells and enhances malignant potential, is being uncovered now. For example, ...

Clinically, pancreatic tumors have proven to develop resistance to available treatment options; however, efficacy might be achieved if the required levels of drugs reach the tumor site. Tumor microenvironment (TME) leads to extensive desmoplasia and chemo-resistance, contributing immensely to the invasive and metastatic process of pancreatic carcinoma [1]. Desmoplasia involves the excessive pro...