Oncology

Metastatic Pancreatic Cancer

Impact of Next-Generation DNA Sequencing in Metastatic Pancreatic Cancer

clinical topic updates by Andrew Hendifar, MD, MPH

Overview

Next-generation DNA sequencing technology has improved recently in regard to reliability, sequencing chemistry, pipeline analyses, and data interpretation, making the use of it for personalized diagnosis and management practical in current clinical practice. This brings increased promise for pancreatic cancer to improve current treatment modalities because some patients may harbor actionable mutations that could impact outcomes. In addition, awareness of molecular pathogenesis through next-generation DNA sequencing may provide opportunities for early detection. A member of our expert panel discusses the importance of next-generation DNA sequencing in metastatic pancreatic cancer.

“We have been able to gather a lot of very important information through the use of next-generation DNA sequencing, and I think we will be able to change the way we approach pancreatic cancer going forward.”

Andrew Hendifar, MD, MPH

References

Kamps R, Brandao RD, van den Bosch BJ, et al. Next-generation sequencing in oncology: genetic diagnosis, risk prediction and cancer classification. Int J Mol Sci. 2017;18(2):308.

Rishi A, Goggins M, Wood LD, Hruban RH. Pathological and molecular evaluation of pancreatic neoplasms. Semin Oncol. 2015;42(1):28-39.

Valero V, Saunders TJ, He J, et al. Reliable detection of somatic mutations in fine needle aspirates of pancreatic cancer with next-generation sequencing: implications for surgical management. Ann Surg. 2016;263(1):153-161.

Voidonikolas G, Gingras MC, Hodges S, et al. Developing a tissue resource to characterize the genome of pancreatic cancer. World J Surg. 2009;33(4):723-731.