Role of Exosomes in Pancreatic Cancer Progression

Role of Exosomes in Pancreatic Cancer Progression

The present pilot study is set up with the objective of identifying circulating markers in the biological fluids (blood and urine) of subjects with pancreatic carcinoma and their association with disease stage, to evaluate their potential use as predictive and diagnostic markers for this tumor of difficult early diagnosis and often inauspicious prognosis.

The study is cross-sectional, single-center, spontaneous, in human tissues. It is a pilot study to gather evidence on the content of extracellular vesicles/exosomes in patients with pancreatic cancer.

The study will be performed on tumor tissue, blood and urine samples. Tissue will be obtained by needle biopsy (fine needle biopsy - FNB) during echoendoscopic examination.

The study aims to characterize the content of extracellular vesicles/exosomes in the biological fluids of subjects with pancreatic cancer with the goal of identifying new markers for this disease. To this end, the following will be carried out:

• an ex vivo and in vitro characterization study of the secretion of these extracellular vesicles/exosomes with analysis of their contents in terms of proteins and nucleic acids;
• a study of the mechanisms of epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT), invasion and aggressiveness to highlight a possible association between the secretion of these vesicles and the oncological stage of pancreatic carcinoma;

Inclusion criteria:

• People with pancreatic cancer
• 18 years old
• Obtaining informed consent.

Exclusion criteria:

• Patients who do not need or cannot perform endoscopy with biopsy sampling;
• patients with a previous or active neoplastic pathology, different from pancreatic neoplasia.