title: Pancreatic Cancer: Clinical Significance of Biomarkers.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Improvement in the prognosis of patients with pancreatic cancer, novel effective screening and diagnostic strategies and treatments are needed. Recent advances in the understanding of pancreatic carcinogenesis and tumor microenvironment have allowed identification of biomarkers for screening, diagnosis and prediction of cancer treatments, including novel therapies targeting specific cancer or stromal cell subpopulations. Personalized therapy in pancreatic cancer is also promising as several drugs such as S1, capecitabine and gemcitabine reportedly have significant therapeutic effects. Predictive markers are thus needed to select patients most likely to benefit from therapies based on gemcitabine or other drugs.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  We review the clinical significance of promising screening, diagnostic, predictive and prognostic biomarkers based on genetic and epigenetic alterations and microRNA abnormalities in pancreatic cancer. We also review new types of biomarkers based on stromal cells, such as pancreatic stellate cells, in the microenvironment of pancreatic cancer.
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery and Oncology, Graduate School of Medical Sciences, Kyushu University, Fukuoka, Japan ; Department of Advanced Medical Initiatives, Graduate School of Medical Sciences, Kyushu University, Fukuoka, Japan.
authors.forename: Kenoki
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Ohuchida
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery and Oncology, Graduate School of Medical Sciences, Kyushu University, Fukuoka, Japan.
authors.forename: Takao
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Ohtsuka
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery and Oncology, Graduate School of Medical Sciences, Kyushu University, Fukuoka, Japan.
authors.forename: Kazuhiro
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Mizumoto
authors.affiliation: Department of Advanced Medical Initiatives, Graduate School of Medical Sciences, Kyushu University, Fukuoka, Japan.
authors.forename: Makoto
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Hashizume
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery and Oncology, Graduate School of Medical Sciences, Kyushu University, Fukuoka, Japan.
authors.forename: Masao
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Tanaka
keywords: Biomarker; Pancreatic cancer; Pancreatic stellate cell