Non-Coding RNA in Pancreatic Ductal Adenocarcinoma: New Perspectives for the Clinical Practice

Dear Colleagues,

Pancreatic cancer incidence has increased in developed countries, and it is anticipated to become the second biggest cause of cancer-related deaths by 2030. The 5-year survival rate is 50% when tumors are <2 cm in size and close to 100% for tumors <1 cm; unfortunately, pancreatic cancer is normally asymptomatic, and patients are treated as outpatients. Therefore, in 80% of cases, this type of tumor is diagnosed when it has metastasized to distant organs. In those cases, surgical resection based on the Whipple procedure, or its modifications, is not recommended. Additionally, there are no target therapies nor immune-checkpoint inhibitors that can treat these patients, and adjuvant therapy is usually based on cytotoxic and anti-metabolites that rarely contribute toward survival and are mostly used with a palliative intent.

Therefore, there is a clinical need for new diagnostic biomarkers to achieve an early detection of patients to offer surgery first as a curative method and new treatment approaches. Since non-coding RNA is small enough to travel via bodily fluids without degradation, it presents promising potential as an early diagnostic biomarker even via liquid biopsy methodologies. Furthermore, non-coding RNA targets several oncogenes, allowing proliferation arrest, dedifferentiation regulation to a stemness phenotype, apoptosis induction, and inhibition of epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition to hamper pancreatic cancer cell migration and invasion of vital organs. In this regard, small interfering RNAs (siRNAs), microRNAs (miRNAs), Piwi-interacting RNA (piRNAs), or long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs), among others, could help in the routine clinical management of pancreatic cancer patients. 

Dr. Jesus Garcia-Foncillas
Dr. Javier Martinez Useros
Guest Editors

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• pancreatic cancer
• microRNA
• lncRNA
• piRNA
• pancreatic cysts
• predictive biomarkers
• novel therapies