Overview
The EU ME PC trial is a multi-center study examining the utility of Endoscopic Ultrasound FNA to provide tissue for comprehensive molecular profiling of pancreatic cancer for patients with metastatic, locally advanced or recurrent pancreatic cancer. The trial incorporates the use of either an additional fresh frozen biopsy banked at the time of diagnostic EUS or the use of archival formalin fixed paraffin embedded tissue.
DNA and RNA are extracted from these tissues and, if adequate are sequenced using the 500 gene panel. RNA is also used to assess a novel diagnostic gene signature that we have developed, and this is compared to the results of the 500 gene signature to further validate the utility of this diagnostic signature and its potential as a tool for assessing the adequacy of biopsy samples prior to NGS. The results of the 500 gene panels are reviewed at a molecular tumour board and fed back to treating clinicians. The trial has been open for just over 12 months and recruited 55 patients. The preliminary results are presented here.
|
Dr Daniel Croagh Dr Daniel Croagh is a pancreatic surgeon and researcher at Monash Health and Monash University. He completed a PhD at Peter Mac in 2007 exploring oesophageal stem cells. After a two-year fellowship at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham on the HPB and Interventional Endoscopic Units, he returned to Monash Health in 2011 as a full-time surgeon endoscopist and Monash University as a lecturer in 2013. As part of his interest in the management of Pancreatic Cancer, he is the clinical lead for the pancreatic module of the Upper GI Cancer Registry and he also established a Victorian Pancreatic Cancer Biobank which has collected tissue from ~ 400 patients with pancreatic cancer over the last 5 years (predominantly at Monash Health but also at Cabrini, Epworth, The Alfred and Peninsula Health). He has been exploring the potential role of EUS FNA for the molecular profiling of pancreatic cancer to improve the diagnostic accuracy of this technique and to explore its potential role in guiding personalised therapy. |
