(Ivanhoe Newswire) — Pancreatic cancer patients may soon have a new tool to let them know how long they will live. It may also help determine the difference between chronic pancreatitis and pancreatic cancer.
Researchers at Ohio State University in Columbus say the key may be the expression pattern of a short or micro RNA molecule (miRNA). In humans, atypical expression of miRNAs can lead to cancer. MiRNAs are present in all living cells. Their role in pancreatic cancer is not clear.
A new study looked at miRNA patterns in patients with pancreatic cancer and those with chronic pancreatitis. Researchers say by looking at the patterns, they can determine the difference with 95-percent accuracy — a difference that may not be found with routine screening.
“More importantly, data such as ours, in which it is possible to begin to differentiate between patients with better or worse prognoses, may help guide the clinician when determining who should or should not receive aggressive therapy,” write the authors.
“Aside from these diagnostic and prognostic examples of how miRNA expression patterns can be used clinically, the ability of miRNAs to affect multiple genes in various pathways make them a logical target for investigation of novel antitumoral therapies.”
However, the authors note their research is preliminary, and more studies need to be done to validate their findings.
About 33,000 people die from pancreatic cancer in the United States every year.
This article was reported by Ivanhoe.com, which offers Medical Alerts by e-mail every day of the week. To subscribe, click on: http://www.ivanhoe.com/newsalert/.
SOURCE: The Journal of the American Medical Association, 2007;297:1901-1908
