Prognostic and Therapeutic Relevance of the 'Side Population' in Pancreatic Cancer

In the current project we aim to study the oncological process of pancreatic cancer, from a perspective of the CSC-theory and in particular through the 'side population' (SP)-approach. The SP seems to be enriched for CSC and doesn't a priori exclude any CSC-subpopulation. After isolation from pancreatic cancer resection specimens, SP cells will be characterized by gene-expression profiling based on microarray analysis. We'll identify markers and pathways (with emphasis for stem cell and cancer -related ones) that are differentially expressed in SP versus the rest of tumour cells (the 'main population' or MP). In order to assess the prognostic relevance of the SP, we'll study these genes using the high-throughput Nanostring technology in about 200 snap-frozen PDAC resection specimens of patients from our prospective database. Finally, two monoclonal antibodies (mAB) will be tested as novel therapeutic agents in vivo (mouse model), wherein the choice of mAB will be based on prognostically relevant molecular targets and pathways obtained from the Nanostring results.