Identifying Prognostic Biomarkers of Pancreatic Cancer

Pancreatic cancer is one of the most aggressive and fatal cancers worldwide. Treatment efficacy is a major concern, and there is a pressing need for reliable prognostic biomarkers to improve patient outcomes. Here, we used Causaly to uncover potential biomarkers for this disease.

Pancreatic cancer is the third leading cause of cancer deaths in men and women in the U.S.,¹ with almost half a million deaths reported in 2020 alone.² Late-diagnosis, coupled with aggressive tumor biology, contribute to less than 20% survival at 5-years.³ Patients with this cancer exhibit poor response to conventional therapies,⁴ highlighting the need for novel therapeutic and the importance of prognostic biomarkers in disease management.

Prognostic biomarkers are critical for assessing disease progression, recurrence, and the likelihood of a clinical event.⁵ Serum carbohydrate antigen (CA 19-9) has prognostic value, however, non-specific expression and false negative results in Lewis negative genotypes limits applicability in pancreatic cancer management.⁶ This underscores the importance of ongoing biomarker research. Here, we used Causaly Cloud to explore prognostic biomarkers of pancreatic cancer.

Over 6,500 biomarkers for pancreatic cancer were identified by Causaly. 5,000+ of these biomarkers were linked to pancreatic cancer prognosis. By refining the search by biospecimen, 1,200+ blood biomarkers for pancreatic cancer were uncovered, 750+ biomarkers were reported in primary data. Further, 100+ biomarkers were categorized as signaling proteins. Over the last year, around 15 of these signaling proteins have been examined in research studies.

Biomarkers were further prioritized by the amount of evidence, uncovering interleukin-1β (IL-1β) as a potentially interesting biomarker. A study demonstrated the role of IL-1β in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC).⁷ By analyzing serum samples from PDAC patients, researchers reported an association between CD41+/CD62P+ platelets and poor prognosis.⁷ Interestingly, panexin 1 was shown to enhance the secretion of IL-1β in CD41+/CD62P+ platelets, promoting cell invasion and metastasis,⁷ highlighting the potential of IL-1β as a prognostic biomarker. However, further studies are required to assess the clinical utility of IL-1β as a biomarker in pancreatic cancer.

There is an urgent need for improving pancreatic cancer outcomes. Prognostic biomarkers are crucial for assessing disease progression, recurrence and the likelihood of a clinical event. Their potential in improving treatment efficacy could be pivotal, marking a significant stride towards mitigating the devastating impact of pancreatic cancer. Causaly can accelerate biomarker discovery, enabling the rapid identification of relevant and novel biomarkers from the entire volume of biomedical literature.