We are pleased to share that the January 2019 issue of Pancreas features an article titled “Emerging Evidence for the Clinical Relevance of Pancreatic Cancer Exosome,” written by the Director of the UCLA Agi Hirshberg Center for Pancreatic Diseases O. Joe Hines, MD; Hirshberg Seed Grant Awardees Jonathan C. King, MD and Guido Eibl, MD; and Roxanne L. Massoumi, MD.
The article explains that over the last 5 years, exosome biology has gained increasing interest as a field of study. While much is still unknown about the role exosomes play in human health and disease, there is growing evidence that exosomes – nanovesicles produced by nearly all human cell types – may play a crucial role in cancer biology.
The team behind this publication focused on the currently available literature to review how exosomes have the potential to change the clinical management of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma, the most common form of pancreatic cancer. Pancreatic cancer is an aggressive malignancy that is often treatment-resistant yet there is a limited understanding of the molecular mechanisms that underlie this behavior. A growing body of literature points to exosomes as the mediators of numerous processes utilized by pancreatic cancer tumors to grow, invade and spread in the body while evading the body’s innate defenses.
Exosomes may also be valuable markers of disease and provide information on prognosis and treatment efficacy. There is still much work to be done to fully understand the role exosomes can play in diseases processes but there is clear evidence of their importance. In the future, further understanding of exosomes and the role(s) they play in the biology of pancreatic cancer may have significant impacts on the diagnosis and treatment of this deadly disease.
We are proud of the team behind this paper. Publishing an article in a renowned medical journal is an important milestone for all scientists. We are hopeful that further research into exosome biology yields results for the treatment of pancreatic cancer.