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Updated: Jul 29, 2025

Ultrasound-Guided Orthotopic Implantation of Murine Pancreatic Ductal Adenocarcinoma
Published on: November 19, 2019
Highly Selective Targeting of Pancreatic Cancer in the Liver with a Near-Infrared Anti-MUC5AC Probe in a PDOX Mouse
Michael A Turner1,2, Kristin E Cox1,2, Nicholas Neel1,2
1Division of Surgical Oncology, Department of Surgery, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92037, USA.
Abstract:
Accurately identifying metastatic disease is critical to directing the appropriate treatment in pancreatic cancer. Mucin 5AC is overexpressed in pancreatic cancer but absent in normal pancreas tissue. The present proof-of-concept study demonstrates the efficacy of an anti-mucin 5AC antibody conjugated to an IR800 dye (MUC5AC-IR800) to preferentially label a liver metastasis of pancreatic cancer (Panc Met) in a unique patient-derived orthotopic xenograft (PDOX) model. In orthotopic models, the mean tumor to background ratio was 1.787 (SD ± 0.336), and immunohistochemistry confirmed the expression of MUC5AC within tumor cells. MUC5AC-IR800 provides distinct visualization of pancreatic cancer liver metastasis in a PDOX mouse model, demonstrating its potential utility in staging laparoscopy and fluorescence-guided surgery.

