Halozyme Therapeutics Inc (HALO)

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http://carcin.oxfordjournals.org/content/35/7.toc

Editorial

Cellular and molecular conspirators in pancreas cancer
Sunil R. Hingorani1,2,3,*
+ Author Affiliations

1 Clinical Research Division and
2 Public Health Sciences Division, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle, WA 98109, USA and
3 Division of Medical Oncology, University of Washington School of Medicine, Seattle, WA 98195, USA

If cancer is the emperor of maladies, then pancreas cancer is the emperor of emperors. With the highest 1-year, 5-year and 10-year mortalities of any cancer, it is unrivaled in its lethality. An invasive pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDA) represents an exquisitely tuned product of the coordinated evolution of cell intrinsic and extrinsic processes and capabilities. In reclaiming its evolutionary birthright, the cancer slips the yoke of multicellular life and harnesses the full potential of its genome, subverting and repurposing the dictums of normal tissue composition, architecture, and physiology to foster unbridled growth and colonization. A new organizational entity is constructed at the behest of the mutated epithelial cell. New cells are summoned, existing cells are reprogrammed and metabolism is rewired to serve the new biological imperatives. What are the most salient features of this insidious cancer? A paucity of tumor epithelial cells amidst a heterogeneous sea of non-epithelial cells; a complex interstitial stew of proteins, proteoglycans and glycosaminoglycans, together with both freely mobile and complexed water; and a paucity of vessels that otherwise resemble a normal vasculature in lacking fenestrae or interendothelial junctions, but that are collapsed under intense interstitial fluid pressures.