Circulating Tumor Cells and Cell-Free Nucleic Acids as Predictor Factors for Early Pancreatic Cancer Dissemination, A Literature Review

1. Abstract

1.1. Background: Pancreatic cancer remains as one of the most aggressive and deadliest of cancers largely due to formidable challenges in diagnosis and therapy. Consensus standard treatment for patients with nonmetastatic Pancreatic Cancer (PC) incorporates possible neoadjuvant chemotherapy with timely surgical resection and adjuvant chemotherapy. However, despite all the sophistication of modern radiological and endoscopic techniques, the decision regarding operability is often only made intra-operatively, therefore subjecting a patient to unnecessary surgical intervention, and postponing the possibility of starting early chemotherapy.