New biomarkers for pancreatic cancer

High throughput sequencing technologies together with new models have tremendously increased our knowledge on pancreatic cancer biology in the last 5 years. They have defined different tumor sub types with important prognostic implication and open new therapeutic opportunities. Yet, while the literature on biomarkers is abundant, none has made its way into routine clinical practice and key questions such as which patient is the best candidate for surgery or can we predict the efficacy of the different available systemic chemotherapies are still unanswered. Circulating biomarkers such as DNA, miRNA or exosomes appear to be very promising to answer the former question. On the other hand, tissue biomarkers such as RNA or DNA signatures such as the ones used in breast cancer could help better tailor the treatment.