Pancreatic cancer is sadly a disease with very poor outcomes and only 7.3% of people survive this cancer for 5 years or longer in England (Cancer Research UK). The majority of patients with pancreatic cancer are diagnosed too late for potentially curable treatment to be applied and so there is an urgent need to detect pancreatic cancers earlier with the aim of improving outcomes from this disease.
One strategy for earlier detection is to screen people before they experience any symptoms using a minimally invasive test such as a blood test to look for indicators of pancreatic cancer. Published in the journal Cancers, Dr Shivan Sivakumar (Department of Oncology and Oxford University Hospitals NHS Trust) and colleagues Dr Jedrzej Jaworski (University of Oxford) and Dr Robert Morgan (University of Manchester and Christie NHS Foundation Trust) review the potential of cancer DNA in the blood as an effective and reliable indicator of pancreatic cancer.
DNA from cancer cells can be distinguished from DNA from healthy tissue using either genetic or epigenetic methods (or a combination of both). In the genetic method, cancer can be detected by looking at the DNA sequence, with the presence of cancer-associated DNA sequence changes called mutations or altered fragmentation patterns indicating cancer. In the epigenetic method, chemical modifications to the DNA called methylation are measured that have been shown to change in cancer.
In this review, the authors discuss the potential for DNA-based blood tests for pancreatic cancer earlier detection, the challenges that still need to be overcome and the future perspectives.
Read the full review article on the Cancers journal website.
Pancreatic cancer blood test research in Oxford
In Oxford, we have a couple of research projects underway to study both the genetic and epigenetic methods for detecting pancreatic cancer-derived DNA in the blood:
- Dr Siim Pauklin (Botnar Research Centre, Nuffield Department of Orthopaedics, Rheumatology and Musculoskeletal Sciences) is working to identify a pancreatic cancer-specific DNA signature. In the long-term, it is hoped that this can be used as the basis of a simple blood test to detect the presence of pancreatic cancer earlier. This project is funded by the Pancreatic Cancer UK Research Innovation Fund. Read more about Siim’s project here.
- Dr Chunxiao Song (Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research) is collaborating with Dr Shivan Sivakumar to apply his TAPS technology to pancreatic cancer. TAPS is a new, more sensitive method for detecting methylation on DNA, which gives it an advantage over other detection methods for measuring the very small levels of circulating tumour DNA in the blood. The team are working to identify patterns of DNA methylation that are specific for pancreatic cancer with the aim of developing this into a diagnostic test. Read more about Chunxiao’s and Shivan’s project on the Oxford Cancer website.
Research projects to detect pancreatic cancer in the blood through non-DNA markers are also in progress in Oxford.
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