The impact of molecular classification based on the transcriptome of pancreatic cancer: from bench to bedside

Pancreatic cancer is a malignancy with a 5-year overall survival rate of less than 10% and is the third leading cause of death among cancers. Total resection is the only potentially curative treatment. Unfortunately, less than 20% of patients are candidates for surgery. High-throughput molecular analysis has revealed the intra- and inter-heterogeneity of pancreatic cancer, leading to a challenge for optimizing clinical treatment to reduce the morbidity and mortality. Currently, the AJCC TNM stage is associated with the outcome of patients with pancreatic cancer, but this clinicopathological factor cannot always predict the prognosis. Owing to the complex nature of this disease, a long-term goal includes the effective identification of different subgroups of patients with prognostic and predictive outcomes to enable precision medicine. Evidence has made it clear that information extracted from the transcriptome is promising and plays an important role in clinical decision-making. In this review, we simply summaries the molecular subtypes and its molecular features based on the transcriptome of pancreatic cancer. Besides, we provide a brief discussion on the impact of molecular classification on prognosis and therapy based on the transcriptome of pancreatic cancer. In addition, the challenges and opportunities for translation from bench to bedside will also be discussed.