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Liquid Biopsies for Pancreatic Cancer: Is It Ready for Prime Time?

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Pancreatic Cancer

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Abstract

The natural history of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is characterized by late diagnosis, spatiotemporal heterogeneity, relative chemoresistance, and paucity of actionable therapeutic targets. Attempts to therapeutically target vulnerabilities in the PDAC somatic genome using tissue-based testing have been successful only in 8–15% of patients with well-defined driver alterations. There is an urgent, unmet need to develop scalable somatic assays that are prognostic and/or predictive—with high sensitivity and specificity. Conceptually, liquid biopsies offer a relatively non-invasive strategy for (1) cancer screening, (2) quantitative and qualitative monitoring of minimal residual disease (MRD), and (3) characterization of tumor clonal evolution as well as spatiotemporal heterogeneity—thus circumventing major limitations of tissue-based molecular profiling. However, liquid biopsies have not yet become a part of routine clinical practice due to several inherent limitations. This chapter describes the currently available liquid biopsy techniques, their role in detection, diagnosis, surveillance, and treatment of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma, and possible future applications.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Hematology and Oncology, Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, WI, USA

    Kathleen Monahan & Ben George

  2. Mary Ann and Charles LaBahn Pancreatic Cancer Program, Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, WI, USA

    Ben George

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  1. Kathleen Monahan
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  2. Ben George
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Correspondence to Ben George .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. GI Medical Oncology, The University of Texas MD Anderson Canc, Houston, TX, USA

    Shubham Pant

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Monahan, K., George, B. (2023). Liquid Biopsies for Pancreatic Cancer: Is It Ready for Prime Time?. In: Pant, S. (eds) Pancreatic Cancer. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-38623-7_7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-38623-7_7

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-031-38622-0

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-031-38623-7

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