Miguel Lopez-Lazaro*

Faculty of Pharmacy, Department of Pharmacology, University of Seville, C/ Professor Garcia Gonzalez, Sevilla, Spain

*Corresponding Author: Miguel López-Lázaro, Department of Pharmacology, Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Seville, C/ Professor Garcia Gonzalez, Sevilla, Spain.

Received: June 26, 2017; Published: February 02, 2018

Citation: Miguel Lopez-Lazaro. “Pancreatic Cancer Formation is Gradual". Acta Scientific Cancer Biology 2.2 (2018).

Abstract

  It is widely accepted that cancer development requires the sequential accumulation of DNA changes over years or decades. In a recent study published in Nature, Notta., et al. challenge this dogma [1]. They analysed the genomes of more than 100 pancreatic tumours and found that many DNA changes occur simultaneously as a consequence of massive genomic rearrangements associated with catastrophic mitotic events. The authors discuss that the formation of advanced pancreatic cancers is not gradual, and propose a new model in which the simultaneous accumulation of genetic alterations arising from mitotic errors rapidly leads to the development of invasive disease. However, cancer incidence data by age indicate that the time frame required for the formation of invasive pancreatic cancers is similar from other cancers in which these mitotic errors are rare, thereby indicating that the high frequency of catastrophic mitotic events in pancreatic tumours may be a consequence of the disease rather than a cause. In addition, the extremely low rates of pancreatic cancer in young people and the striking increase in its incidence with age strongly suggests that the formation of most invasive pancreatic cancers requires the gradual accumulation of DNA changes over several decades. This means that there is time and opportunity to detect and stop pancreatic carcinogenesis before the development of advanced disease.

Keywords: Pancreatic Cancer; Carcinogenesis; Cancer Development; Chromothripsis; Cancer Models

Copyright: © 2018 Miguel Lopez-Lazaro. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.