Extracellular Influences: Molecular Subclasses and the Microenvironment in Pancreatic Cancer
1
Laboratory for Experimental Oncology and Radiobiology, Center for Experimental and Molecular Medicine, Academic Medical Center and Cancer Center Amsterdam, Meibergdreef 9, 1105 AZ Amsterdam, The Netherlands
2
Department of Medical Oncology, Academic Medical Center, University of Amsterdam, Meibergdreef 9, 1105 AZ Amsterdam, The Netherlands
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Cancers 2018, 10(2), 34; https://doi.org/10.3390/cancers10020034
Received: 27 November 2017 / Revised: 21 December 2017 / Accepted: 24 January 2018 / Published: 27 January 2018
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Latest Development in Pancreatic Cancer)
Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is the most prevalent form of pancreatic cancer and carries the worst prognosis of all common cancers. Five-year survival rates have not surpassed 6% for some decades and this lack of improvement in outcome urges a better understanding of the PDAC-specific features which contribute to this poor result. One of the most defining features of PDAC known to contribute to its progression is the abundance of non-tumor cells and material collectively known as the stroma. It is now well recognized that the different non-cancer cell types, signalling molecules, and mechanical properties within a tumor can have both tumor-promoting as well as –inhibitory effects. However, the net effect of this intratumour heterogeneity is not well understood. Heterogeneity in the stromal makeup between patients is even less well established. Such intertumour heterogeneity is likely to be affected by the relative contributions of individual stromal constituents, but how these contributions exactly relate to existing classifications that demarcate intertumour heterogeneity in PDAC is not fully known. In this review, we give an overview of the available evidence by delineating the elements of the PDAC stroma and their contribution to tumour growth. We do so by interpreting the heterogeneity at the gene expression level in PDAC, and how stromal elements contribute to, or interconnect, with this.
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Keywords:
pancreatic cancer; heterogeneity; stroma; immune cells; fibroblasts; mutations; gene expression
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MDPI and ACS Style
Veenstra, V.L.; Garcia-Garijo, A.; Van Laarhoven, H.W.; Bijlsma, M.F. Extracellular Influences: Molecular Subclasses and the Microenvironment in Pancreatic Cancer. Cancers 2018, 10, 34. https://doi.org/10.3390/cancers10020034
AMA Style
Veenstra VL, Garcia-Garijo A, Van Laarhoven HW, Bijlsma MF. Extracellular Influences: Molecular Subclasses and the Microenvironment in Pancreatic Cancer. Cancers. 2018; 10(2):34. https://doi.org/10.3390/cancers10020034
Chicago/Turabian StyleVeenstra, Veronique L.; Garcia-Garijo, Andrea; Van Laarhoven, Hanneke W.; Bijlsma, Maarten F. 2018. "Extracellular Influences: Molecular Subclasses and the Microenvironment in Pancreatic Cancer" Cancers 10, no. 2: 34. https://doi.org/10.3390/cancers10020034
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