Caveolin-1: a marker for pancreatic cancer diagnosis

Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma is the fourth most common cause of cancer death, but the prognosis and management of patients have remained unchanged despite the progress in understanding the molecular basis of this disease. There is no specific/sensitive tumor marker for pancreatic cancer, thus the battle of searching for new and validated tumor markers has become a hot topic. Among various new markers, caveolin-1 - with its dual function in cancer - stands apart due to its relation to the development and progression stage of cancer. Caveolin-1 has been considered an independent unfavorable prognostic factor, its level being elevated and related to tumor size and histological grade. Our experimental data confirmed the link between tissue caveolin-1 and classical proliferation markers in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma, and its overexpression was validated by western blot and correlated with tumor aggressiveness. Although the studies on caveolin-1 and pancreatic cancer are only preliminary and reveal conflicting data, this review aims to signal that caveolin-1, as a versatile signaling molecule, may represent a valuable marker in this type of cancer. For caveolin-1 we can foresee two future directions of development: validation it as a biomarker and/or as an anticancer therapy target.