Molecular Classification and Pathogenesis of Pancreatic Adenocarcinoma and Targeted Therapies: A Review

Pancreatic adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is disease with a 5-year survival of only 12%. Many patients with PDAC present with late-stage disease and even early-stage disease can often be characterized by an aggressive tumor biology. Standard therapy for metastatic PDAC consists mainly of chemotherapy regimens like FOLFIRINOX, FOLFOX, or gemcitabine and nab-paclitaxel. Research has focused on sequencing PDAC tumors to understand better the mutational landscape and transcriptomics of PDAC with the goal to develop targeted therapies. Targeted therapies may potentially minimize the toxic risks of chemotherapy and provide a long-term survival benefit. We herein review the underlying molecular pathogenesis of PDAC, as well as the classification schema created from current sequencing data, and recent updates related to targeted therapy for PDAC.