title: The role of apoptosis in the pathology of pancreatic cancer.
abstract: Pancreatic cancer is a disease with high resistance to most common therapies and therefore has a poor prognosis, which is partly due to a lack of reaction to apoptotic stimuli. Signal transduction of such stimuli includes a death receptor-mediated extrinsic pathway as well as an intrinsic pathway linked to the mitochondria. Defects in apoptotic pathways and the deregulation of apoptotic proteins, such as Survivin, Bcl-2, Bcl-xL and Mcl-1, play decisive roles in the development of pancreatic cancer. Investigation of the molecular mechanism allowing tumors to resist apoptotic cell death would lead to an improved understanding of the physiology and the development of new molecular strategies in pancreatic cancer.
authors.affiliation: Department of Visceral-, Thoracic- and Vascular-Surgery, University Hospital Dresden, Dresden, Germany. christian.pilarsky@uniklinikum-dresden.de.
authors.forename: Nicole
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Samm
authors.forename: Kristin
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Werner
authors.forename: Felix
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Rückert
authors.forename: Hans Detlev
authors.initials: HD
authors.lastname: Saeger
authors.forename: Robert
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Grützmann
authors.forename: Christian
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Pilarsky