Pancreas Cyst

The purpose of the Pancreatic Cancer Early Detection (PRECEDE) Consortium is to conduct research on multiple aspects of early detection and prevention of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) by establishing a multisite cohort of individuals with family history of PDAC and/or individuals carrying pathogenic/likely pathogenic germline variants (PGVs) in genes linked to PDAC risk for longitudinal follow up.

The effective diagnosis of pancreatic cancer is often quite challenging, due to a lack of disease-specific symptoms, resulting in the majority of patients presenting with advanced disease, with an associated dismal prognosis. Earlier detection of pancreatic cancer, at a stage where surgery is feasible, would greatly increase the 5-year survival rate. Detecting pancreatic cancer early is therefore vital to improve the prognosis for these patients. Pre-cancerous pancreatic cysts are an early indicator of malignant transformation. The ideal screening test would be capable of detecting pancreatic cancer at these initial stages. Current procedures for pancreatic cancer diagnosis are invasive, uncomfortable and costly, and can be considered unnecessary in those cysts found to be benign. We propose to study a number of tumour regulatory molecules that have been the subject of research in laboratories at the University of Hull (e.g., tissue factor (TF), adrenomedullin (AM) using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISA) tests) that have been studied in the context of carcinogenic transformation in more common malignancies but have yet to be fully tested in pancreatic malignant transformation. The recent introduction of platform technologies at the University of Hull has broadened this area of investigation by giving us access to next generation genomic sequencing and proteomic analyses of small amounts of tissue samples. We intend to analyse pancreatic cystic fluid samples using these technologies to discover new regulatory molecules. Altogether, his study will measure the levels of novel regulatory molecules and genetic changes involved with pancreatic cancer carcinogenesis using a combination of conventional techniques (e.g. ELISA) and state-of-the-art platform technologies in pancreatic cysts from those patients in whom cancer may be suspected, to determine the potential of these molecules to serve as markers to detect early changes towards pancreatic cancer.

Researchers are trying to find out whether new tests ("biomarkers") of blood, stool, pancreas cyst fluid, or pancreas juice can be used to diagnose malignant or pre-malignant changes in pancreas cysts.

Identifying biomarkers of early pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) could facilitate screening for individuals at higher than average risk and expedite the diagnosis in individuals with symptoms and substantially improve an individual's chance of surviving the disease. The investigators propose a longitudinal study of subjects at higher than average risk of PDAC in order to generate clinical data and bank serial blood specimens.

The purpose of this study is to collect all radiological data which evaluated with clinical data may help assess malignancy and prognosis of pancreatic disease.This registry aims to collect retrospective data from 2014 and prospective data until 2027 with a maximum follow-up of 3 years per patient.

The goal of the IMPACT project is to set up a data sharing infrastructure between expert centers for pancreatic surgery that enables training, testing and validation of computer science tools to improve quality of care for patients with pancreatic cancer.

The project aims at analysing prognostic and predictive factors involved in diagnostics and surgical treatment of cysts and tumors in the pancreas and periampullary region using both clinical data and blood and tissue samples for biomarker development and validation.