Abstract C62: The Alliance of Ppancreatic Cancer Consortia for Biomarkers for Early Detection

Pancreatic cancer is the fourth leading cause of cancer death in the United States and the 5-year relative survival for patients diagnosed with pancreatic cancer is less than 10%. Early intervention is the key to a better survival outcome. Currently, there are no biomarkers that can reliably detect pancreatic cancer at an early stage or identify precursors that are destined to progress to malignancy. The Alliance of Pancreatic Cancer Consortia for Biomarkers for Early Detection was formed under the auspices of a workshop organized by the National Cancer Institute in partnership with the Kenner Family Research Fund and the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network (December 5, 2016). The second, biannual workshop of the Alliance was convened December 12, 2018. The organizers of this workshop included Drs. Ralph Hruban, Kenneth Kinzler, Stephen Pandol, Brian Wolpin, Walter Park, Samir Hanash, and Anirban Maitra. Investigators from four NCI-supported consortia on pancreatic cancer detection, including the Pancreatic Cancer Detection Consortium (PCDC), the Early Detection Research Network (EDRN), the Consortium for the Study of Chronic Pancreatitis, Diabetes and Pancreatic Cancer (CPDPC), and the Consortium for Molecular and Cellular Characterization of Screen-Detected Lesions (MCL), were invited to participate in the workshop. Other invited participants included members of the Kenner Family Research Fund, the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network, investigators from industry, and biostatisticians from NCI‘s Division of Cancer Prevention, Biometry Research Group, and from the EDRN. The keynote speakers included Dr. Ralph Hruban from Johns Hopkins University who spoke about the challenges in pancreatic cancer research, and Dr. James Abbruzzese from Duke Cancer Institute who provided an updated report from NCI’s Scientific Framework for Pancreatic Ductal Adenocarcinoma (PDAC), which met shortly before the workshop. The focus of the workshop included discussion of the molecular characterization of PDAC and its precursors and methodologies for early detection of pancreatic cancer, new imaging applications and artificial intelligence for mining big data, development and utilization of new methods for biomarker validation, and biospecimen science and resources. The members of the workshop agreed that the Alliance should immediately begin working on the development of a repository for images collected prior to the diagnosis of pancreatic cancer. These images could be shared with the Alliance members and would be useful for development of imaging biomarkers. Working with the NCI, the Alliance has begun establishing the common data elements (CDE) needed to develop a repository of pancreatic cancer images. The Alliance of Pancreatic Cancer Consortia provides a valuable forum for investigators and collaborators to discuss and address early detection of pancreatic cancer. Citation Format: Matthew R. Young, Natalie Abrams, Sharmistha Ghosh-Janjigian, Guillermo Marquez, Jo Ann Rinaudo, Sudhir Srivastava. The Alliance of Ppancreatic Cancer Consortia for Biomarkers for Early Detection [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the AACR Special Conference on Pancreatic Cancer: Advances in Science and Clinical Care; 2019 Sept 6-9; Boston, MA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2019;79(24 Suppl):Abstract nr C62.