Introduction According to the World Cancer Research Fund (WCRF) there were 279,000 cases of pancreatic cancer diagnosed worldwide in 2008 ( ). The estimated five-year prevalence of people living with pancreatic cancer is projected at 3.5% per 100,000 and…
Introduction to EMCIT Concept The concept of enzyme-mediated cancer imaging and therapy (EMCIT) involves the use of an enzyme specifically overexpressed on the surface of cancer cells. As such, the enzyme can act as a mediator for the hydrolysis of…
Introduction The underpinning and ultimate promise of personalized therapy is that the molecular fingerprint of a patient’s tumor becomes the rationale for targeted and patient-tailored therapy. Until recently, this fingerprint has been a genomics-centered analysis using exome panels, whole genome…
An Introduction and Brief Overview of MicroRNAs MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are short noncoding RNAs 22 nucleotides in length that carry out complex regulatory functions through post-transcriptional targeting and modification. Initially, these miRNAs were discovered through analyses of Caenorhabditis elegans development, in…
Introduction Pancreatic cancer is the fourth most common cause of cancer death in North America. The five-year survival rate is only 5.1% . The high lethality related to pancreatic cancer is due to a number of factors. It is biologically…
Acknowledgment We acknowledge Dr Fazlul Sarkar for providing the necessary reagents (CSCs) to conduct the studies described in this chapter. Introduction Pancreatic cancer (PC) kills ∼300,000 individuals worldwide, and each year in the United States there are an estimated 43,920…
Introduction Molecular feedback mechanisms lend robustness and the ability of living cells to respond and adapt to their environment. As a means to ward off cancer, for example, the expression of proto-oncogenes in response to growth factors is normally followed…
Acknowledgments The authors wish to thank Jenny L. Heidbrink, Victoria Bushman, Erin Brand, Jim Norton, Jun Kim, Brian Feild, Roxanne Armstrong, Henrik Olsen, Will Fitzhugh, Jim Duff, Ping Zhang and Katherine Paweletz, for their technical assistance. We also wish to…
Introduction Pancreatic cancer (PC) has been recognized as one of the most life-threatening diseases because of the lack of diagnostic methods in the early stage as well as its rapid progression . Among the well-known key barriers for the effective…
Acknowledgment This work was supported in part by the National Institutes of Health under grants K25CA137222, R21CA149772, R21CA161575, and R01CA107209, and Canary Foundation. Introduction Despite advances in our understanding of pancreatic cancer development in the past decade, the disease remains…