Molecular Testing in Pancreatic Cancer

Pancreatic cancer is a relatively rare, but lethal disease with one of the lowest survival rates after diagnosis. Pancreatic cancer is usually diagnosed late during the course of the disease which accounts for its high mortality rate. To diagnose pancreatic cancer at early stage is challenging because this cancer may not be responsible for symptoms and patients may not look for medical attention until the cancer has already spread locally or to distant organs. Consequently, we are constantly looking for molecular markers that can identify early pancreatic cancer and hopefully offer treatments that can confidently impact survival in individual patients after diagnosis. This chapter summarizes the available evidence regarding molecular markers developed to improve the early diagnosis of pancreatic cancer using human specimens including serum, pancreatic juice, bile, stool, urine, and tissue.