Establishment of Primary Cell Lines in Pancreatic Cancer

Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is by far the most common type of tumor in the exocrine pancreas, accounting for 85% to 100% of all malignant pancreatic tumors (Kloppel et al., 2004). During the last 30 years, little improvement in the prognosis of patients with PDAC has been achieved (Jemal et al., 2009). A better understanding of the biological nature of this neoplasm might improve the prognosis of patients. For this purpose, permanent cultured cell lines are helpful, since their convenience of use facilitates a variety of experiments (Ku et al., 2002). However, the amount of viable tumor-derived material is limited. The majority of research in PDAC has been done in a few cell lines; only 19 pancreatic carcinoma cell lines are broadly available for research. In addition to their small number, permanent cell lines have another disadvantage: the long culture times leave the cells prone to genetic drift (Kato et al., 1999; McQueen et al., 1991).