Infiltrating ductal adenocarcinoma is the most common malignancy of the pancreas. When most investigators use the term 'pancreatic cancer' they are referring to pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDA). Normal duct epithelium progresses to infiltrating cancer through a series of histologically defined precursors. The overexpression of HER-2/neu and activating point mutations in the K-ras gene occur early, inactivation of the p16 gene at an intermediate stage, and the inactivation of p53, SMAD4, and BRCA2 occur relatively late. Activated K-ras engages multiple effector pathways. Although EGF receptors are conventionally regarded as upstream activators of RAS proteins, they can also act as RAS signal transducers via RAS-induced autocrine activation of the EGFR family ligands. Moreover, PDA shows extensive genomic instability and aneuploidy. Telomere attrition and mutations in p53 and BRCA2 are likely to contribute to these phenotypes. Inactivation of the SMAD4 tumour suppressor gene leads to loss of the inhibitory influence of the transforming growth factor-beta signalling pathway.
Jones S, Hruban RH, Kamiyama M, Borges M, Zhang X, Parsons DW, Lin JC, Palmisano E, Brune K, Jaffee EM, Iacobuzio-Donahue CA, Maitra A, Parmigiani G, Kern SE, Velculescu VE, Kinzler KW, Vogelstein B, Eshleman JR, Goggins M, Klein AP
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Exomic sequencing identifies PALB2 as a pancreatic cancer susceptibility gene.
Nissim S, Leshchiner I, Mancias JD, Greenblatt MB, Maertens O, Cassa CA, Rosenfeld JA, Cox AG, Hedgepeth J, Wucherpfennig JI, Kim AJ, Henderson JE, Gonyo P, Brandt A, Lorimer E, Unger B, Prokop JW, Heidel JR, Wang XX, Ukaegbu CI, Jennings BC, Paulo JA, Gableske S, Fierke CA, Getz G, Sunyaev SR, Wade Harper J, Cichowski K, Kimmelman AC, Houvras Y, Syngal S, Williams C, Goessling W
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Mutations in RABL3 alter KRAS prenylation and are associated with hereditary pancreatic cancer.