National Familial Pancreas Tumor Registry

The NFPTR was established in 1994 to find the causes of pancreatic cancer. In brief, the investigators are interested in both the genetic and non-genetic causes of pancreatic cancer. The investigators are particularly interested in finding the genes that cause pancreatic cancer to cluster in some families. Up to 10% of pancreatic cancer patients have another close relative who has also developed pancreatic cancer. This clustering of pancreatic cancers in families has yet to be explained; however, the investigators continue to identify new familial pancreatic cancer genes that explain this clustering in subsets of families. For example, in 2009 and 2012 the investigators discovered that mutations in the PALB2 and ATM genes jointly account up to 5% of the clustering of pancreatic cancer in families.