RNA Patterns Distinguish Between Pancreatitis and Pancreatic Cancer

Expression patterns of microRNAs (also known as miRNAs) may soon be used to diagnose pancreatic cancer.

Analysis of microRNAs--strands of ribonucleic acid that regulate the expression of some genes--has also revealed at least one that appears to be a marker for poor survival in pancreatic cancer, according to Mark Bloomston, M.D., from Ohio State University (Columbus, Ohio, USA).

We have identified--we believe for the first time--a global expression pattern of miRNAs that can differentiate ductal adenocarcinomas of the pancreas from normal pancreas and chronic pancreatitis with 95% accuracy, Dr. Bloomston and colleagues reported in the May 2, 2007, issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.

MiRNAs may also be useful for defining prognosis and identifying low- and high-risk populations of patients with pancreatic cancer, the researchers added. In addition, they may point the way to new therapeutic targets--a critical unmet clinical need in the management of pancreatic cancer.

MiRNAs may also be useful for defining prognosis and identifying low- and high-risk populations of patients with pancreatic cancer, they added. And they may point the way to new therapeutic targets--a critical unmet clinical need in the management of pancreatic cancer.

Dr. Bloomston and colleagues used microarray technology to analyze RNA from 65 patients with ductal adenocarcinoma of the pancreas and 42 with chronic pancreatitis. For all the patients, they also analyzed the miRNA expression from adjacent normal tissue. Little is known about the function of many of the miRNAs revealed by the study, Dr. Bloomston and colleagues said, but two--miR-21 and miR-155 -were uniquely over-expressed in cancer tissue compared with normal pancreas or chronic pancreatitis. The first is thought to play a role in preventing programmed cell death and is found in several solid tumors, while the second is also overexpressed in solid tumors as well as being associated with lymphomas.


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