Pancreatic Cancer Discovered to be Four Different Diseases
Researchers from the Australian Pancreatic Cancer Genome Initiative and the Garvan Institute of Medical Research analyzed over 450 pancreatic tumors and determined “the cancer may be more accurately classified as four different diseases, each with its own characteristics and survival rates,” according to The Huffington Post. Four distinct subcategories of the disease were identified: squamous, pancreatic progenitor, immunogenic and aberrantly differentiated endocrine exocrine (ADEX).
Pancreatic cancer is one of the most deadly cancers in the world, primarily because it is so difficult to diagnose. While there isn’t currently a screening test proven to catch tumors early, this discovery could have potential positive impacts on future treatments, allowing doctors to customize treatments based on the kind of pancreatic cancer their patients have.
“It may not make a lot of difference today, but hopefully, as you begin to try different therapies on different groups, you’re going to find that different collections of therapies will work better on one group or another,” William Phelps, a program director with the American Cancer Society (who was not involved in the studies), told The Huffington Post. “These are the molecular underpinnings for why that might be true.”
