Purpose Deleterious germline mutations contribute to pancreatic cancer susceptibility and are well documented in families in which multiple members have had pancreatic cancer. Methods To define the prevalence of these germline mutations in patients with apparently sporadic pancreatic cancer, we sequenced 32 genes, including known pancreatic cancer susceptibility genes, in DNA prepared from normal tissue obtained from 854 patients with pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma, 288 patients with other pancreatic and periampullary neoplasms, and 51 patients with non-neoplastic diseases who underwent pancreatic resection at Johns Hopkins Hospital between 2000 and 2015. Results Thirty-three (3.9%; 95% CI, 3.0% to 5.8%) of 854 patients with pancreatic cancer had a deleterious germline mutation, 31 (3.5%) of which affected known familial pancreatic cancer susceptibility genes: BRCA2 (12 patients), ATM (10 patients), BRCA1 (3 patients), PALB2 (2 patients), MLH1 (2 patients), CDKN2A (1 patient), and TP53 (1 patient). Patients with these germline mutations were younger than those without (mean ± SD, 60.8 ± 10.6 v 65.1 ± 10.5 years; P = .03). Deleterious germline mutations were also found in BUB1B (1) and BUB3 (1). Only three of these 33 patients had reported a family history of pancreatic cancer, and most did not have a cancer family history to suggest an inherited cancer syndrome. Five (1.7%) of 288 patients with other periampullary neoplasms also had a deleterious germline mutation. Conclusion Germline mutations in pancreatic cancer susceptibility genes are commonly identified in patients with pancreatic cancer without a significant family history of cancer. These deleterious pancreatic cancer susceptibility gene mutations, some of which are therapeutically targetable, will be missed if current family history guidelines are the main criteria used to determine the appropriateness of gene testing.
Objective
Secretin-stimulated pancreatic juice contains DNA shed from cells lining the pancreatic ducts. Genetic analysis of this fluid may form a test to detect pancreatic ductal neoplasia.
Design
We employed digital next-generation sequencing (‘digital NGS’) to detect low-abundance mutations in secretin-stimulated juice samples collected from the duodenum of subjects enrolled in Cancer of the Pancreas Screening studies at Johns Hopkins Hospital. For each juice sample, digital NGS necessitated 96 NGS reactions sequencing nine genes. The study population included 115 subjects (53 discovery, 62 validation) (1) with pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC), (2) intraductal papillary mucinous neoplasm (IPMN), (3) controls with non-suspicious pancreata.
Results
Cases with PDAC and IPMN were more likely to have mutant DNA detected in pancreatic juice than controls (both p<0.0001); mutant DNA concentrations were higher in patients with PDAC than IPMN (p=0.003) or controls (p<0.001). TP53 and/or SMAD4 mutations were commonly detected in juice samples from patients with PDAC and were not detected in controls (p<0.0001); mutant TP53/SMAD4 concentrations could distinguish PDAC from IPMN cases with 32.4% sensitivity, 100% specificity (area under the curve, AUC 0.73, p=0.0002) and controls (AUC 0.82, p<0.0001). Two of four patients who developed pancreatic cancer despite close surveillance had SMAD4/TP53 mutations from their cancer detected in juice samples collected over 1 year prior to their pancreatic cancer diagnosis when no suspicious pancreatic lesions were detected by imaging.
Conclusions
The detection in pancreatic juice of mutations important for the progression of low-grade dysplasia to high-grade dysplasia and invasive pancreatic cancer may improve the management of patients undergoing pancreatic screening and surveillance.
BACKGROUND & AIMS
Pancreatic imaging can identify neoplastic cysts but not microscopic neoplasms. Mutation analysis of pancreatic fluid following secretin stimulation might identify microscopic neoplasias in the pancreatic duct system. We determined the prevalence of mutations in KRAS and GNAS genes in pancreatic juice from subjects undergoing endoscopic ultrasound for suspected pancreatic intraepithelial neoplasia (PanIN), intraductal papillary mucinous neoplasms, or pancreatic adenocarcinoma.
METHODS
Secretin-stimulated juice samples were collected from the duodenum of 272 subjects enrolled in Cancer of the Pancreas Screening studies; 194 subjects were screened because of a family history of, or genetic predisposition to, pancreatic cancer and 78 were evaluated for pancreatic cancer (n=30) or other disorders (controls: pancreatic cysts, pancreatitis, or normal pancreata, n=48). Mutations were detected by digital high-resolution melt-curve analysis and pyrosequencing. The number of replicates containing a mutation determined the mutation score.
RESULTS
KRAS mutations were detected in pancreatic juice from larger percentages of subjects with pancreatic cancer (73%) or undergoing cancer screening (50%) than controls (19%) (P=.0005). A greater proportion of patients with pancreatic cancer had at least 1 KRAS mutation detected 3 or more times (47%) than screened subjects (21%) or controls (6%, P=.002). Among screened subjects, mutations in KRAS (but not GNAS) were found in similar percentages of patients with or without pancreatic cysts. However, a greater proportion of patients over 50 ys old had KRAS mutations (54.6%) than younger patients (36.3%) (P=.032); the older subjects also more mutations in KRAS (P=.02).
CONCLUSIONS
Mutations in KRAS are detected in pancreatic juice from the duodenum of 73% of patients with pancreatic cancer, and 50% of asymptomatic individuals with a high risk for pancreatic cancer. However, KRAS mutations are detected in pancreatic juice from 19% of controls. Mutations detected in individuals without pancreatic abnormalities, based on imaging analyses, likely arise from small PanIN lesions. ClinicalTrials.gov no: NCT00438906 and NCT00714701
Our approach identified combinatorial markers for pancreatic cyst classification that had improved performance relative to the individual features they comprise. In principle, this approach can be applied to any clinical dataset comprising dichotomous, categorical, and continuous-valued parameters.
BackgroundProspective studies have identified obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) as a risk factor for increased overall cancer incidence and mortality. The potential role of OSA in the risk or progression of specific cancers is not well known. We hypothesized that pathological differences in pancreatic cancers from OSA cases compared to non-OSA cases would implicate OSA in pancreatic cancer progression.MethodsWe reviewed the medical records of 1031 patients who underwent surgical resection without neoadjuvant therapy for pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) at Johns Hopkins Hospital between 2003 and 2014 and compared the TNM classification of their cancer and their overall survival by patient OSA status.ResultsOSA cases were significantly more likely than non-OSA cases to have lymph node-negative tumors (37.7% vs. 21.8%, p = 0.004). Differences in the prevalence of nodal involvement of OSA vs. non-OSA cases were not associated with differences in other pathological characteristics such as tumor size, tumor location, resection margin status, vascular or perineural invasion, or other comorbidities more common to OSA cases (BMI, smoking, diabetes). A logistic regression model found that a diagnosis of OSA was an independent predictor of lymph node status (hazard ratio, 0.051, p = 0.038). Patients with OSA had similar overall survival compared to those without OSA (HR, 0.89, (0.65–1.24), p = 0.41).ConclusionThe observed pathological differences between OSA-associated and non-OSA-associated pancreatic cancers supports the hypothesis that OSA can influence the pathologic features of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma.
This paper reports a prospective randomized multicenter trial of two fractionation schemes in the supervoltage radiotherapy of locally inoperable epidermoid lung cancer. This study was stimulated by the need to provide improved and more acceptable treatment methods for patients with this condition, the most common cell type of lung cancer. The majority of such patients are not suitable for resection because of metastasis or because of extensive local disease, even though exploratory thoracotomy may be performed. It was therefore considered important to identify preferred methods of irradiation in this situation which is found in a large proportion of patients with lung cancer.
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