Proteomic investigation of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma: moving towards precision medicine

Proteome alterations associated with pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) may reflect the profound changes in cellular functions and biological processes at multiple levels due to pancreatic malignancy. These steady or perturbation-induced proteome alterations may be localized or systemic, related to or discrete from genomic factors. Our data has revealed significant protein interactions between the cancer cells and the extracellular matrix, which orchestrate PDAC tumor growth, migration, angiogenesis, invasion, metastasis, and immunologic escape. We have also applied targeted proteomics to interrogate specific protein candidates in various clinical bodily fluids in the context of biomarker development. These studies, built upon the advances in mass spectrometry technology, bioinformatics and knowledgebase, have supported our efforts using ”omics” approaches to facilitate precision medicine in pancreatic cancer.