Radionuclide-Peptide Nucleic Acid in Diagnosis and Treatment of Pancreatic Cancer

Cancer of the exocrine pancreas will attack an estimated 31,000 Americans in 2004, causing an estimated 30,000 deaths (1 ). Cancer of the exocrine pancreas (hereafter simply referred to as pancreatic cancer) occurs more frequently in African-Americans than in European-Americans. The disease progresses rapidly. Pancreatic cancer is usually refractory to treatment, with a median survival time of 12 mo. Overall, only 1% of patients live more than 5 yr after diagnosis. However, if the disease is diagnosed when it is localized, the 5-yr survival is approx 20% (2 ). It would be beneficial to detect pancreatic cancer at an early stage, when combination therapy with surgery and 5-fluorouracil (5-FU)-based chemotherapy might permit survival. In view of the current lack of a reliable method for early diagnosis, we propose noninvasive measurement of the oncogene expression profile of the cancer and subsequent ablation of those cells expressing the activating oncogenes.