ACAA1 knockout increases the survival rate of KPC mice by activating autophagy.

Objectives: We found that the levels of the peroxisomal fatty acid oxidation (FAO) marker in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) patients were higher than those in healthy individuals, based on tissue microarray analysis. This study investigates FAO in preclinical in vitro and in vivo models.

Methods: To examine the role of FAO in the peroxisome, we created acetyl-coenzyme A acyltransferase (ACAA1) knockout mice, crossed them with KPC mice, and monitored their survival rates.

Prevention of stent migration of covered self-expandable metal stents in distal malignant biliary obstruction: a review of literature.

Distal malignant biliary obstruction (dMBO) is a common complication of advanced malignancies, particularly pancreatic cancer and biliary tract cancer, requiring biliary drainage to relieve symptoms. Endoscopic drainage using self-expandable metal stents (SEMS) is widely preferred due to improved long-term patency compared with plastic stents. However, the choice between fully covered SEMS (FCSEMS) and uncovered SEMS (UCSEMS) remains controversial, primarily due to migration risks associated with FCSEMS.

Loss of in Pancreatic Adenocarcinoma Reversed the Tumor-Promoting Effects of a High-Fat Diet.

Although it is known that High-fat diet (HFD) promotes the development of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC), no direct link between HFD and cancer has been identified. Previously, we showed that ATP production by cancer cells depends on fatty acid oxidation (FAO); therefore, we hypothesized that blocking FAO may prevent HFD-induced promotion of PDAC growth. To determine whether FAO is increased in PDAC patients, we analyzed a tissue microarray by immunohistochemical staining to detect carnitine palmitoyl transferase I.

Optimal Value of Mutant KRAS Circulating Tumor DNA for Predicting Prognosis and Monitoring in Patients with Pancreatic Adenocarcinoma: A Prospective Multicenter Cohort Study.

Background: The generalizability and applicability of circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) KRAS mutations in patients with pancreatic adenocarcinoma (PAC) remain elusive. We aimed to propose a cut-off value of mutant KRAS (mKRAS) concentration in ctDNA and validate its clinical utility.

Methods: This prospective, multicenter cohort study enrolled 419 patients with PAC.

Metal-Phenolic Coordination mediated Nanoemulsions for All-in-One Drug Delivery.

Combination chemotherapy is a promising strategy for cancer treatment, enhancing antitumor efficacy while minimizing drug resistance and mitigating the risk of single-drug overdose toxicity. Polymeric drug delivery carriers for combination chemotherapy have been developed; however, the synthetic process of amphiphilic polymers is time-consuming and laborious. The polymer entanglement-based drug encapsulation has been limited in achieving a high multidrug encapsulation efficiency because of the intrinsic preference for encapsulation of drugs upon their polarity.

Mutant KRAS and GATA6 Stratify Survival in Patients Treated with Chemotherapy for Pancreatic Adenocarcinoma: A Prospective Cohort Study.

Background: Several pancreatic adenocarcinoma (PA) biomarkers beyond the traditional carbohydrate antigen (CA)19-9 have been identified but are lacking large-scale prospective validation. This prospective cohort study evaluated the prognostic impact of potential PA biomarkers.

Methods: We enrolled 238 of 288 patients with histologically proven PA.

Survival benefits of adjuvant chemotherapy after conversion surgery in patients with advanced pancreatic cancer.

Background: Oncologic outcomes of conversion surgery for advanced pancreatic cancer (PC) have scarcely been reported. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate the outcomes of conversion surgery with preoperative treatment of FOLFIRINOX or gemcitabine with nab-paclitaxel (GnP) for patients with advanced PC including locally advanced or metastatic PC.

Methods: Using the National Health Insurance database between 2005 and 2020, we identified patients who underwent conversion surgery after chemotherapy with FOLFIRINOX or GnP for advanced PC.

Role and Effectiveness of Hypofractionated Proton Beam Therapy and Combinations with Systemic Chemotherapy in Inoperable Extrahepatic Cholangiocarcinoma.

Purpose: This study aims to assess the clinical outcomes of hypofractionated proton beam therapy (PBT) for extrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma (EHCC) and to investigate the optimal sequencing for combining PBT with chemotherapy.

Materials And Methods: We retrospectively analyzed 59 consecutive patients with inoperable EHCC treated with PBT. The median prescribed dose of PBT was 50 GyE (range, 45 to 66 GyE) in 10 fractions.

ATR inhibition promotes synergistic antitumor effect in platinum-resistant pancreatic cancer.

Background: Oxaliplatin is a commonly used platinum-based chemotherapy drug for patients with pancreatic cancer (PC). Drug resistance is a major challenge in PC treatment, underscoring the urgent need for new approaches. Targeting DNA damage repair, one of the factors responsible for platinum resistance, is an attractive strategy to overcome drug resistance.

The Impact of the Dietary Inflammatory Index, Fasting Blood Glucose, and Smoking Status on the Incidence and Survival of Pancreatic Cancer: A Retrospective Case-Control Study and a Prospective Study.

Background: Pancreatic cancer (PC), a highly malignant cancer with a poor diagnosis, may be influenced by diet-related inflammation. This study examined the association between dietary inflammatory index (DII) scores and the incidence and prognosis of PC in Korea.

Methods: A total of 55 patients with PC were matched with 280 healthy controls (HCs) by age and sex.

Development of 3D-iNET ORION: a novel, pre-clinical, three-dimensional in vitro cell model for modeling human metastatic neuroendocrine tumor of the pancreas.

Neuroendocrine tumors (NETs) of the pancreas are rare neoplasms that present complex challenges to diagnosis and treatment due to their indolent course. The incidence of pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors has increased significantly over the past two decades. A limited number of pancreatic neuroendocrine cell lines are currently available for the research.

The Trends and Outcomes of Initial Palliative Chemotherapy in Patients with Pancreatic Cancer in Korea Based on National Health Insurance Service Data.

: The survival rate of patients with pancreatic cancer (PC) has improved gradually since the introduction of FOLFIRINOX (FFX) and gemcitabine + albumin-bound paclitaxel (GnP) regimens. However, the trends and outcomes of initial palliative chemotherapy before and after the advent of these regimens and their contribution to survival rates are not well understood. This study aimed to investigate this in patients with PC in Korea using claims data from the National Health Insurance Service (NHIS).

The predictive value of PD-L1 expression in response to anti-PD-1/PD-L1 therapy for biliary tract cancer: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

Background: Recently, anti-programmed cell death protein 1 (PD-1)/programmed death-ligand 1 (PD-L1) immunotherapy offers promising results for advanced biliary tract cancer (BTC). However, patients show highly heterogeneous responses to treatment, and predictive biomarkers are lacking. We performed a systematic review and meta-analysis to assess the potential of PD-L1 expression as a biomarker for treatment response and survival in patients with BTC undergoing anti-PD-1/PD-L1 therapy.

PRMT1 promotes pancreatic cancer development and resistance to chemotherapy.

Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) remains one of the most lethal types of cancer, and novel treatment regimens are direly needed. Epigenetic regulation contributes to the development of various cancer types, but its role in the development of and potential as a therapeutic target for PDAC remains underexplored. Here, we show that PRMT1 is highly expressed in murine and human pancreatic cancer and is essential for cancer cell proliferation and tumorigenesis.

New Function Annotation of PROSER2 in Pancreatic Ductal Adenocarcinoma.

Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) has a dismal prognosis due to the absence of diagnostic markers and molecular targets. Here, we took an unconventional approach to identify new molecular targets for pancreatic cancer. We chose uncharacterized protein evidence level 1 without function annotation from extensive proteomic research on pancreatic cancer and focused on proline and serine-rich 2 (PROSER2), which ranked high in the cell membrane and cytoplasm.

Phase 1 trial of 4-1BB-based adoptive T-cell therapy targeting human telomerase reverse transcriptase in patients with advanced refractory solid tumors.

Background Aims: Human telomerase reverse transcriptase (hTERT) is an attractive target for anti-cancer therapies. We developed an effective method for generating hTERT-specific CD8 T cells (hTERT-induced natural T cells [TERTiNTs]) using peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) from patients with solid cancers and investigated their feasibility and safety.

Methods: This was a single-center phase 1 trial using a 3 + 3 dose escalation design to evaluate six dose levels of TERTiNTs.

Annotation-Efficient Deep Learning Model for Pancreatic Cancer Diagnosis and Classification Using CT Images: A Retrospective Diagnostic Study.

The aim of this study was to develop a novel deep learning (DL) model without requiring large-annotated training datasets for detecting pancreatic cancer (PC) using computed tomography (CT) images. This retrospective diagnostic study was conducted using CT images collected from 2004 and 2019 from 4287 patients diagnosed with PC. We proposed a self-supervised learning algorithm (pseudo-lesion segmentation (PS)) for PC classification, which was trained with and without PS and validated on randomly divided training and validation sets.

Establishment of Patient-Derived Organoids Using Ascitic or Pleural Fluid from Cancer Patients.

Purpose: Patient-derived tumor cells can be a powerful resource for studying pathophysiological mechanisms and developing robust strategies for precision medicine. However, establishing organoids from patient-derived cells is challenging because of limited access to tissue specimens. Therefore, we aimed to establish organoids from malignant ascites and pleural effusions.

Diagnosis and Treatment of Perihilar Cholangiocarcinoma: A National Survey from the Korean Pancreatobiliary Association.

Background/aims: Based on their anatomy, cholangiocarcinomas (CCAs) are classified into intrahepatic, hilar, and distal CCAs. Although the diagnosis and treatment of each type of CCA are thought to be different, real-world data studies on the current practice are limited. Therefore, this study was designed to capture the current practice of diagnosing and treating perihilar CCA in Korea.

Integrative modeling of tumor genomes and epigenomes for enhanced cancer diagnosis by cell-free DNA.

Multi-cancer early detection remains a key challenge in cell-free DNA (cfDNA)-based liquid biopsy. Here, we perform cfDNA whole-genome sequencing to generate two test datasets covering 2125 patient samples of 9 cancer types and 1241 normal control samples, and also a reference dataset for background variant filtering based on 20,529 low-depth healthy samples. An external cfDNA dataset consisting of 208 cancer and 214 normal control samples is used for additional evaluation.

Prevalence and Risk Factors of Germline Pathogenic Variants in Pancreatic Ductal Adenocarcinoma.

Purpose: The genetic attribution for pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) has been reported as 5%-10%. However, the incidence of germline pathogenic variants (PVs) in Korean PDAC patients has not been thoroughly investigated. Therefore, we studied to identify the risk factors and prevalence of PV for future treatment strategies in PDAC.

Unsupervised Visual Representation Learning Based on Segmentation of Geometric Pseudo-Shapes for Transformer-Based Medical Tasks.

Recently, transformer-based architectures have been shown to outperform classic convolutional architectures and have rapidly been established as state-of-the-art models for many medical vision tasks. Their superior performance can be explained by their ability to capture long-range dependencies of their multi-head self-attention mechanism. However, they tend to overfit on small- or even medium-sized datasets because of their weak inductive bias.