AUTHOR=Bugazia Doaa , Al-Najjar Ebtesam , Esmail Abdullah , Abdelrahim Saifudeen , Abboud Karen , Abdelrahim Adham , Umoru Godsfavour , Rayyan Hashem A. , Abudayyeh Ala , Al Moustafa Ala-Eddin , Abdelrahim Maen TITLE=Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma: the latest on diagnosis, molecular profiling, and systemic treatments JOURNAL=Frontiers in Oncology VOLUME=14 YEAR=2024 URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/oncology/articles/10.3389/fonc.2024.1386699 DOI=10.3389/fonc.2024.1386699 ISSN=2234-943X ABSTRACT=

Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is currently the fourth leading cause of death in the United States and is expected to be ranked second in the next 10 years due to poor prognosis and a rising incidence. Distant metastatic PDAC is associated with the worst prognosis among the different phases of PDAC. The diagnostic options for PDAC are convenient and available for staging, tumor response evaluation, and management of resectable or borderline resectable PDAC. However, imaging is crucial in PDAC diagnosis, monitoring, resectability appraisal, and response evaluation. The advancement of medical technologies is evolving, hence the use of imaging in PDAC treatment options has grown as well as the utilization of ctDNA as a tumor marker. Treatment options for metastatic PDAC are minimal with the primary goal of therapy limited to symptom relief or palliation, especially in patients with low functional capacity at the point of diagnosis. Molecular profiling has shown promising potential solutions that would push the treatment boundaries for patients with PDAC. In this review, we will discuss the latest updates from evidence-based guidelines regarding diagnosis, therapy response evaluation, prognosis, and surveillance, as well as illustrating novel therapies that have been recently investigated for PDAC, in addition to discussing the molecular profiling advances in PDAC.