Biological and Clinical Database for Pancreatic Adenocarcinoma (BACAP)

Pancreatic cancer represents the fifth cause of death by cancer in Western countries. In over 90% of cases, it is due to an adenocarcinoma. The only curative treatment for pancreatic cancer remains the surgical exeresis. This one can only be suggested as a curative treatment in only 10 to 15% of cases. Besides, prevention or screening is impossible due to the absence of clearly identified risk factors or groups and to the absence of useful markers for the diagnosis in clinical practice.

The research efforts in this area must face a double challenge: saving time while improving the diagnosis period and strengthen the therapeutic equipment. It is important to identify and characterise the new molecular markers applicable for a better diagnosis and/or treatment (especially the response factors to chemotherapy). The present project aims at creating a multicentre national network used to set up a clinical biological base (CBB) dedicated to the pancreatic adenocarcinoma, built on the best quality standards, for the biological resources as well as the associated clinical and epidemiological data.

The originality of this CBB relies on the fact that it will have not only tumour tissues sampled from surgical specimens of resectable tumours but also cell and biopsy material from unresectable and/or metastatic tumours sampled under endoscopic ultrasonography (1500 biopsies over 3 years coupled to systematic blood samples). Endoscopic ultrasonography is a technique used to specifically perform biopsies on pancreatic tumours and to obtain useful cell material for research. To these samples will be associated every clinical and epidemiological target data required for research projects related to this unique CBB in France. From these samples, DNA and RNA will be especially isolated, as it is a precious biological material for the programmed molecular analyses.

There are many stakes: creating a French network in order to form, with the prospective plans over 3 years, a collection of tissue, biopsies, nucleic acids from pancreatic cancer associated to circulating blood samples and relevant clinical data. Thanks to this collection, the investigator team hope to be able to identify new molecular markers (from cancer tissue and/or circulating blood from pancreatic cancer patients) applicable to clinical practice to diagnose, to assess the prognosis or to predict the response to pancreatic cancer chemotherapy. The investigator team will also try to identify new risk factors for this cancer, especially regarding the diet. The base will thus be made up from 12 different French centres from University Hospital and private Centres where gastroenterologists, oncologists, digestive surgeons, anatomopathologists, epidemiologists intervene as they are all associated to scientific teams dedicated to pancreatic cancer, itself already formed in collaborative networks.

Investigators hope through this project: to get a unique and exceptional CBB for pancreatic cancer, to reach the required standards (especially Inca) for this CBB, and to be internationally recognised. This base will be a strong guarantee to identify new molecular markers for the diagnosis, the prognosis, and the predictive response to chemotherapy for pancreatic cancer, especially when locally advanced. Finally, the epidemiological projects related to this project are originally about the nutritional issues (regardless of the lipid diet and the cachexia) associated to pancreatic cancer.