Pancreatic Cancer Exosomes: Shedding Off for a Meaningful Journey.

Abstract

This year, pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is expected to overtake breast cancer to become the third leading cause of cancerrelated death in the United States [1]. Nearly 50,416 new cases and 41,780 deaths are estimated to occur in 2016. PDACs carry a notoriously poor prognosis due to advanced stage presentation in most patients and lack of effective therapies. Early diagnosis of PDAC continues to be a challenge in clinics along with early metastasis and resistance to available chemotherapy that together contributes to the poor prognosis [2]. These challenges have motivated researchers to define novel, reliable, and non-invasive or minimally invasive biomarkers for early detection, and understand the process of early metastasis and chemo resistance.