To determine the incidence of circulating minimal malignant clone (CMMC) (harboring c-Ki-ras-2 mutation) in peripheral blood (PB) samples of untreated pancreatic cancer using polymerase chain reaction (PCR) analysis of c-Ki-ras-2 oncogene.
Point mutations of the Ki-ras gene at codon 12 have been frequently identified in pure pancreatic juice of patients with pancreatic cancer in studies examining pancreatic cancer tissues.
Since little is known of its role in pancreatic cancers, we investigated changes in telomerase activity in human pancreatic duct adenocarcinomas and compared the frequency of increased telomerase activity with the presence of K-ras gene mutations.
It was recently reported that the quantitative analysis of mutant K-ras gene in pancreatic juice could be useful for the diagnosis of pancreatic cancer.
The results from currently completed studies on the detection of mutated KRAS2 in patients with colorectal and pancreatic cancer are promising, and the potential usefulness of KRAS2 as a clinically important tumor marker should encourage future research.
To study prospectively the utility of the K-ras gene mutation and cytology in the diagnosis and screening of PC, and to assess its contribution to clinical decision making.
At present, K-ras-2 mutation is not useful for differentiating pancreatic cancer from chronic pancreatitis or the identification of patients with chronic pancreatitis at risk for malignant transformation.
The sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative predictive values of serum serum KRAS2 mutations for the diagnosis of pancreatic cancer were 47, 87, 85 and 52%, respectively.
Results show that multiple K-RAS mutations are frequent both in PC with associated PanIN and in biliary cancers, and indicate that clonally distinct precursor lesions of PC might variably contribute to tumor development.