Dear Colleagues,

Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is a lethal disease, with fewer than 10% of patients surviving beyond 5 years following diagnosis. Despite increasing knowledge regarding its genetic background, PDAC remains refractory to most currently available treatment modalities. Data from genome sequencing studies indicate that PDAC lacks highly actionable simple somatic mutations. Furthermore, there are currently no targeted therapies for the main driver mutations known to occur in PDAC, such as KRAS, TP53, CDKN2A, and SMAD4. However, as molecular profiling of cancers is becoming more and more frequent, even a small number of actionable alterations might turn out to be important. Recently, two to five molecular PDAC-subtypes have been identified, and transcriptional analyses have correlated molecular subtypes to microenvironmental and histomorphologic features.

At present, there is much interest in classifying pancreatic cancer according to its morphologic, genetic, and immunologic features to understand the significant heterogeneity of this tumor. Such information can contribute to the identification of highly needed novel prognostic and predictive biomarkers and can be used for accurate patient stratification and therapy guidance.

This Special Issue focuses on the molecular pathology of PDAC, including integrative molecular, morphologic, and immunophenotypic findings. This could yield valuable clues that may not only provide an insight into the different immunosuppressive mechanisms present in PDAC but also benefit the development of strategies for a more targeted approach to the use of immunotherapy and/or other combinatorial treatments for PDAC patients.

Prof. Dr. Eva Diamantis Karamitopoulou
Guest Editor

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• pancreatic cancer
• molecular subtypes
• molecular biomarkers
• molecular alterations
• transcriptomic analysis
• genome profiling
• mutations
• methylation
• therapy