Bay Biosciences provides high quality clinical grade fresh frozen sera (serum), plasma and peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) biofluid samples derived from unique pancreatic cancer patients whole blood using customized sample processing protocols from unique untreated pancreatic cancer patients diagnosed with Stage I, II, III & IV Pancreatic cancer.
Detailed clinical data and pathology annotations associated with the pancreatic cancer patients sera (serum), plasma and PBMC biofluid samples is provided to a valued customer for diagnostics, research, development and discovery.
Pancreatic Cancer Overview
Pancreatic cancer is a disease in which malignant (cancer) cells form in the tissues of the pancreas. Pancreas is an organ in the abdomen that lies behind the lower part of the stomach. The pancreas releases enzymes that aid digestion and produces hormones that help manage the blood sugar.
The pancreas is a gland about 6 inches long that is shaped like a thin pear lying on its side. The wider end of the pancreas is called the head, the middle section is called the body, and the narrow end is called the tail. The pancreas lies between the stomach and the spine. The pancreas has two main jobs in the human body, to make juices that help digest and break down food and to make hormones, such as insulin and glucagon, that help control blood sugar levels. Both of these hormones help the body use and store the energy it gets from food. The digestive juices are made by exocrine pancreas cells and the hormones are made by endocrine pancreas cells. About 95% of pancreatic cancers begin in exocrine cells.
Several types of growths can occur in the pancreas, including cancerous and noncancerous tumors. The most common type of cancer that forms in the pancreas begins in the cells that line the ducts that carry digestive enzymes out of the pancreas is called pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma. Pancreatic cancer is seldom detected at its early stages when it’s most curable. This is because it often doesn’t cause symptoms until after it has spread to other organs.
Types of Pancreatic Cancer
There are several types of pancreatic cancer, depending on whether the cancer began in the exocrine or endocrine component. Rarely, other types of cancer can begin in the pancreas, such as lymphoma and sarcoma.
Exocrine tumors: These are the most common type of pancreatic cancer. The most common type of exocrine tumor is adenocarcinoma. These tumors usually start in the ducts of the pancreas, called ductal adenocarcinoma. Much less commonly, if the tumor begins in the acini, it is called acinar adenocarcinoma.
An increasingly common diagnosis is called intraductal papillary mucinous neoplasm (IPMN). An IPMN is a tumor that grows within the ducts of the pancreas and makes a thick fluid called mucin. IPMN is not cancerous when it begins but could become cancerous if not treated. Sometimes, an IPMN has already worsened and become a cancer by the time it is diagnosed.
Much rarer types of exocrine pancreatic tumors include: acinar cell carcinoma, adenosquamous carcinoma, colloid carcinoma, giant cell tumor, hepatoid carcinoma, mucinous cystic neoplasms, pancreatoblastoma, serous cystadenoma, signet ring cell carcinoma, solid and pseudopapillary tumors, squamous cell carcinoma, and undifferentiated carcinoma.
Endocrine tumors: These are also called pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors (PNETs) or islet cell tumors. They are much less common than exocrine tumors, making up about 7% of all pancreatic cancers. A pancreatic neuroendocrine tumor can be functioning or nonfunctioning. A functioning tumor makes hormones. A nonfunctioning tumor does not make hormones. A functioning neuroendocrine tumor is named based on the hormone the cells normally make. These include:
- Insulinoma
- Glucagonoma
- Gastrinoma
- Somatostatinoma
- VIPomas
- PPomas
Signs and Symptoms of Pancreatic Cancer
Pancreatic cancer is a “silent disease” because there are not many noticeable symptoms early on in the disease. When pancreatic cancer patients do develop symptoms, they are often similar to the symptoms of other medical conditions, such as an ulcer or pancreatitis. Following are the common signs and symptoms of pancreatic cancer as the cancer grows:
- 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
- Floating stools with a particularly bad odor and an unusual color due to the body not digesting fats well
- Fatigue
- Headaches
- Loss of appetite
- Nausea and vomiting
- Chills and sweats
- Fever
- Unexplained weight loss
Pancreatic Cancer Causes
Exact causes of how pancreatic cancer develops are unknown. Researchers have identified some factors that may increase the risk of developing pancreatic cancer, including smoking and having 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: A number of factors may cause weight loss in patients with pancreatic cancer. Weight loss might happen as the cancer consumes the body’s energy. Nausea and vomiting caused by cancer treatments or a tumor pressing on your stomach may make it difficult to eat. Or your body may have difficulty processing nutrients from food because the pancreas isn’t making enough digestive juices.
- 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. It may be recommend that a plastic or metal tube (stent) be placed inside the patients bile duct to hold it open. This is done with the help of a procedure called endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography (ERCP). During ERCP an endoscope is passed down the throat, through the stomach and into the upper part of your small intestine. A dye is then injected into the pancreatic and bile ducts through a small hollow tube (catheter) that’s passed through the endoscope. Finally, images are taken of the ducts.
- Pain: A growing tumor may press on nerves in the abdomen, causing pain that can become severe. 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 a procedure to inject 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: 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 that a tube (stent) be placed in your small intestine to hold it open. In some situations, it might help to have surgery to place a temporary feeding tube or to attach your stomach to a lower point in your intestines that isn’t blocked by cancer.
Bay Biosciences is a global leader in providing researchers with high quality, clinical grade, fully characterized human tissue samples, bio-specimens and human bio-fluid collections from cancer (tumor) tissue, cancer serum, cancer plasma cancer PBMC and human tissue samples from most other therapeutic areas and diseases.
Bay Biosciences maintains and manages it’s own bio-repository, human tissue bank (biobank) consisting of thousands of diseased samples (specimens) and from normal healthy donors available in all formats and types. Our biobank procures and stores fully consented, deidentified and institutional review boards (IRB) approved human tissue samples and matched controls.
All our human human tissue collections, human specimens and human bio-fluids are provided with detailed samples associated patient’s clinical data. This critical patient’s clinical data includes information relating to their past and current disease, treatment history, lifestyle choices, biomarkers and genetic information. Patient’s data is extremely valuable for researchers and is used to help identify new effective treatments (drug discovery & development) in oncology, other therapeutic areas and diseases. This clinical information is critical to demonstrate their impact, monitor the safety of medicines, testing & diagnostics, and generate new knowledge about the causes of disease and illness.
Bay Biosciences banks wide variety of human tissue samples and biological samples including cryogenically preserved -80°C, fresh, fresh frozen tissue samples, tumor tissue samples, FFPE’s, tissue slides, with matching human bio-fluids, whole blood and blood derived products such as serum, plasma and PBMC’s.
Bay Biosciences is a global leader in collecting and providing human tissue samples according to the researchers specified requirements and customized, tailor made collection protocols. Please contact us anytime to discuss your special research projects and customized human tissue sample requirements.
Bay Biosciences provides human tissue samples (human specimens) from diseased and normal healthy donors; including peripheral whole-blood, amniotic fluid, bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BAL), sputum, pleural effusion, cerebrospinal fluid (CSF), serum (sera), plasma, peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC’s), saliva, Buffy coat, urine, stool samples, aqueous humor, vitreous humor, kidney stones, renal calculi, nephrolithiasis, urolithiasis and other bodily fluids from most diseases including cancer. We can also procure most human bio-specimens and can do special collections and requests of 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, PBMC bio-fluid samples using custom processing protocols, you can buy donor specific sample collections in higher volumes and specified sample aliquoting from us. Bay Biosciences also provides human samples from normal healthy donors, volunteers, for controls and clinical research, contact us Now.
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