Bay Biosciences provides FFPE tumor tissue samples with frozen serum (sera) and plasma samples from pancreatic cancer patients with detailed associated clinical data to a pharmaceutical customer for research.

Pancreatic Cancer Overview

Malignant (cancer) cells form in the tissues of the pancreas, thereby causing pancreatic cancer. The pancreas, specifically an organ in the abdomen, lies behind the lower part of the stomach. Moreover, the pancreas releases enzymes that aid digestion and, in addition, produces hormones that help manage blood sugar.

Notably, the pancreas, a gland about 6 inches long, resembles a thin pear lying on its side. Furthermore, people call the wider end of the pancreas the head, the middle section the body, and, finally, the narrow end the tail.

The pancreas lies between the stomach and the spine. Moreover, the pancreas performs two main jobs in the human body: first, it makes juices that help digest and break down food; second, it produces hormones, such as insulin and glucagon, that help control blood sugar levels.

Additionally, both of these hormones assist the body in using and storing the energy it gets from food. Specifically, exocrine pancreas cells make the digestive juices, while endocrine pancreas cells produce the hormones.

Consequently, about 95% of pancreatic cancers start in exocrine cells.

Several types of growths can develop in the pancreas, including cancerous and noncancerous tumors. Specifically, the most common type of cancer that forms in the pancreas, called pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma, begins in the cells that line the ducts carrying digestive enzymes out of the pancreas.

However, doctors seldom detect pancreatic cancer at its early stages when it’s most curable because it often doesn’t cause symptoms until after it spreads to other organs.

Types of Pancreatic Cancer

Several types of pancreatic cancer exist; however, this depends on whether the cancer began in the exocrine or endocrine component. Rarely, other types of cancer can start in the pancreas, such as lymphoma and sarcoma.

Exocrine tumors: Therefore, these represent the most common type of pancreatic cancer. Specifically, adenocarcinoma is the most common type of exocrine tumor. Moreover, these tumors usually starts in the ducts of the pancreas, which are referred to as ductal adenocarcinoma. In contrast, much less commonly, if the tumor originates in the acini, it is called acinar adenocarcinoma.

Doctors increasingly diagnose intraductal papillary mucinous neoplasm (IPMN). Specifically, an IPMN is a tumor that grows within the ducts of the pancreas and produces a thick fluid called mucin.

Although IPMN is not cancerous when it begins, it can become cancerous if not treated. In some cases, doctors find that an IPMN has already worsened and turned into cancer by the time they diagnose it.

Additionally, much rarer types of exocrine pancreatic tumors include: acinar cell carcinoma, adenosquamous carcinoma, colloid carcinoma, giant cell tumor, and hepatoid carcinoma. Furthermore, mucinous cystic neoplasms, pancreatoblastoma, serous cystadenoma, and signet ring cell carcinoma are also included.

Moreover,  solid and pseudopapillary tumors, squamous cell carcinoma, and undifferentiated carcinoma.

Endocrine tumors: Researchers also call these pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors (PNETs) or islet cell tumors. In fact, they occur much less commonly than exocrine tumors, making up about 7% of all pancreatic cancers.

Specifically, a doctor can classify a pancreatic neuroendocrine tumor as functioning or nonfunctioning. To elaborate, a functioning tumor produces hormones, whereas a nonfunctioning tumor does not produce hormones. 

Furthermore, medical professionals name a functioning neuroendocrine tumor based on the hormone the cells normally produce.

  • Firstly, Insulinoma
  • Secondly, Glucagonoma
  • Thirdly, Gastrinoma
  • Furthermore, somatostatinoma
  • Moreover, VIPomas
  • Finally, Pomas

Signs and Symptoms of Pancreatic Cancer

Pancreatic cancer acts as a silent disease because, unfortunately, doctors do not notice many symptoms early on in the disease. Moreover, when patients with pancreatic cancer develop symptoms, they often experience signs similar to other medical conditions, such as an ulcer or pancreatitis.

Specifically, the common signs and symptoms of pancreatic cancer, as the cancer grows, include:

  • Yellow skin and eyes, darkening of the urine, itching, and clay-colored stool, which are signs of jaundice caused by a blockage of the bile ducts
  • Upper abdominal pain radiates to upper back pain 
  • Blood clots
  • Diabetes
  • Painful swelling of an arm or leg due to a blood clot
  • Burning feeling in stomach or other gastrointestinal discomforts
  • Stomach bloating

Additional Symptoms

Pancreatic Cancer Causes

The exact causes of how pancreatic cancer develops remain unknown. However, researchers have identified several factors that may increase the risk of developing pancreatic cancer, including smoking as well as certain inherited gene mutations.

Pancreatic Cancer Risk Factors

Following are the known factors that may increase the risk of developing pancreatic cancer:

  • Smoking
  • Diabetes
  • Chronic inflammation of the pancreas (pancreatitis)
  • Family history of genetic syndromes that can increase cancer risk, including a BRCA2 gene mutation, Lynch syndrome and familial atypical mole-malignant melanoma (FAMMM) syndrome
  • Family history of pancreatic cancer
  • Obesity
  • Older age, as most pancreatic cancer patients are diagnosed after age 65

Studies have demonstrated that the combination of smoking, long-standing diabetes and a poor diet increases the risk of pancreatic cancer beyond the risk of any one of these factors alone.

Pancreatic Cancer Complications

As pancreatic cancer progresses, it can cause complications for patients, such as:

Weight Loss

  • Weight loss: A number of factors may cause patients with pancreatic cancer to lose weight. The cancer might consume the body’s energy, leading to weight loss. Cancer treatments or a tumor pressing on your stomach may cause nausea and vomiting, making it difficult to eat. Additionally, your body may struggle to process nutrients from food because the pancreas isn’t producing enough digestive juices.

Jaundice

  • Jaundice: Pancreatic cancer that blocks the liver’s bile duct can cause jaundice. Signs include yellow skin and eyes, dark-colored urine, and pale-colored stools. Jaundice usually occurs without abdominal pain. Doctors may recommend that a plastic or metal tube (stent) be placed inside the patient’s bile duct to hold it open. 

Pain

  • Pain: A growing tumor may press on nerves in the abdomen, which can cause severe pain. Pain medications can help the patient feel more comfortable. Treatments, such as radiation and chemotherapy, might help slow tumor growth and provide some pain relief. In severe cases, your doctor might recommend injecting alcohol into the nerves that control pain in the abdomen (celiac plexus block). This procedure stops the nerves from sending pain signals to the brain.

Bowel Obstruction

  • Bowel obstruction: Pancreatic cancer that grows into or presses on the first part of the small intestine (duodenum) can block the flow of digested food from the stomach into the intestines. Your doctor may recommend placing a tube (stent) in your small intestine to hold it open. In some situations, surgery might help to place a temporary feeding tube or to attach your stomach to a lower point in your intestines that cancer does not block.

Treatment of Pancreatic Cancer

The treatment options for pancreatic cancer will depend on:

  • The type of pancreatic cancer a person has
  • Its stage
  • The person’s age, overall health, and other characteristics
  • Their personal choices

Treatment aims to:

  • Remove the cancer
  • Delay or stop its progress
  • Relieve the symptoms

Surgery

If the cancer is localized at the time of diagnosis, it may be possible to eliminate the cancer cells by removing all or part of the pancreas.

Following are three main surgical procedures for pancreatic cancer are:

Whipple procedure

In a Whipple procedure, a surgeon removes the pancreas head and sometimes the whole pancreas, along with a portion of the stomach, duodenum, lymph nodes, and other tissue.

Complications include leaking, infections, bleeding, and stomach problems.

Distal pancreatectomy

In distal pancreatectomy, the surgeon removes part of the pancreas and usually the spleen as well.

The spleen supports the immune system, so there may be a higher risk of infection after its removal.

Total pancreatectomy

In total pancreatectomy, the surgeon removes the entire pancreas and spleen.

A person can live without a pancreas, but diabetes may develop because the body no longer produces insulin cells.

Palliative surgery

Palliative surgery can help relieve symptoms such as obstructions in the bile duct or duodenum.

A surgeon can create a bypass so that bile can continue to flow from the liver. This can minimize pain and digestive problems.

Another option is to insert a small stent in the bile duct to keep it open. This is a less invasive procedure using an endoscope.

Embolization

In embolization, a healthcare professional will inject into an artery a substance that stops blood from reaching the cancer cells. Without the blood supply, these cells will die.

Side effects of embolization include abdominal pain, nausea, fever, infections, and a risk of blood clots in the area of the injection.

Ablation

Ablation uses heat or cold to destroy a tumor. It may help with tumors that are smaller than 1 inch (2.5 centimeters) across. A surgeon will insert a needle or a probe to apply the treatment.

Possible side effects include pain, infections, and internal bleeding.

Chemotherapy

Chemotherapy is a drug treatment that can kill cancer cells and stop them from spreading. A doctor may prescribe it alone or with other treatments. This treatment can also help relieve symptoms in the later stages.

A person receives treatment in cycles of 2–3 weeks, followed by a rest period. This allows the body time to heal between doses.

Side effects include hair loss, nausea, vomiting, and fatigue.

Targeted therapy

This is a newer approach than chemotherapy. It stops cancer cells from developing by targeting substances they need to grow.

There are different types of targeted therapy, such as:

  • EGFR inhibitors, which block the EGFR protein
  • PARP inhibitors, which block PARP enzymes
  • NTRK inhibitors

Unlike chemotherapy, these drugs have specific targets, so their impact on the whole body is lessened. However, they can still have adverse effects, which will depend on the type of treatment a person receives.

Immunotherapy

Immunotherapy works by helping the body’s immune system recognize and destroy cancer cells. Specifically, PD-1 inhibitors are one type of immunotherapy that may help treat pancreatic cancer. In this case, people receive this treatment as an infusion once every 2–3 weeks.

However, possible side effects include fatigue, a cough, a rash, and joint pain.

Radiation therapy

Radiation therapy, therefore, destroys cancer by focusing high energy rays on the cancer cells. In fact, it can shrink or remove a tumor. Moreover, in the later stages, it can help relieve symptoms by removing or reducing a blockage.

Similarly, like chemotherapy, it can cause some side effects, such as skin changes, gastrointestinal disturbances, and fatigue. However, it is important to note that these usually pass after completing treatment.

Consequently, a person may receive radiation therapy either alone or with other treatments, typically on 5 days per week for several weeks.

Biospecimens

Bay Biosciences is, indeed a global leader in providing researchers with high quality, clinical grade, fully characterized human tissue samples, bio-specimens, and human bio-fluid collections.

Specifically, aamples available include cancer (tumor) tissue, cancer serum, cancer plasma, cancer, peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC). and human tissue samples from most other therapeutic areas and diseases.

Moreover, Bay Biosciences maintains and manages its own biorepository, the human tissue bank (biobank) consisting of thousands of diseased samples (specimens) and from normal healthy donors available in all formats and types.

In fact, our biobank procures and stores fully consented, de-identified and institutional review boards (IRB) approved human tissue samples and matched controls.

Additionally, all our human tissue collections, human specimens and human bio-fluids are provided with detailed, samples associated patient’s clinical data.

In particular, critical patient’s clinical data includes information relating to their past and current disease, treatment history, lifestyle choices, biomarkers, and genetic information.

Moreover, patient’s data is extremely valuable for researchers and is used to help identify new effective treatments (drug discovery & development) in oncology, and other therapeutic areas and diseases.

Specifically, Bay Biosciences banks wide variety of human tissue samples and biological samples, including cryogenically preserved at – 80°C.

For example fresh frozen tissue samples, tumor tissue samples, formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded (FFPE), tissue slides, with matching human bio-fluids, whole blood and blood-derived products such as serum, plasma and PBMC.

Furthermore, Bay Biosciences is a global leader in collecting and providing human tissue samples according to the specified requirements and customized, tailor-made collection protocols.

Therefore, please contact us anytime to discuss your special research projects and customized human tissue sample requirements.

Types of Biospecimens

Bay Biosciences provides human tissue samples (human specimens) from diseased and normal healthy donors which includes:

Customized Collections

Moreover, we can also procure most human bio-specimens, furthermore; we offer special collections and requests for human samples that are difficult to find. All our human tissue samples are procured through IRB-approved clinical protocols and procedures.

In addition to the standard processing protocols, Bay Biosciences can also provide human plasma, serum, and PBMC bio-fluid samples using custom processing protocols. Additionally you buy donor-specific collections in higher volumes and specified sample aliquots from us.

Furthermore, Bay Biosciences also provides human samples from normal healthy donors; volunteers, for controls and clinical research, contact us Now.

 

  • 日本のお客様は、ベイバイオサイエンスジャパンBay Biosciences Japanまたはhttp://baybiosciences-jp.com/contact/までご連絡ください。