Molecular genetic alterations in ductal pancreatic adenocarcinomas.

Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinomas are known to harbor a distinct variety of genetic alterations in oncogenes, tumor-suppressor genes, and occasionally genes that carry out DNA mismatch repair. Although this malignancy occurs at an elevated frequency in patients with familial recurrent acute pancreatitis, the genetic alterations of these particular tumors have not been reported. The changes are likely to be similar to those of sporadic pancreatic cancer; if so, this would provide useful clues for studying the progression of early and advanced neoplasia in such pancreatitis patients to aid their clinical monitoring and provision of therapeutic recommendations.