Hallmarks of pancreatic cancer: spotlight on TAM receptors
Núria Vázquez-Bellón,
Neus Martínez-Bosch,
Pablo García de Frutos,
Pilar Navarro
Affiliations
Núria Vázquez-Bellón
Department of Cell Death and Proliferation, Institute of Biomedical Research of Barcelona (IIBB)-CSIC and Institut d’Investigacions Biomèdiques August Pi Sunyer (IDIBAPS), Barcelona, Spain; PhD Program in Biomedicine, Facultat de Medicina (Campus Clínic), Universitat de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain
Neus Martínez-Bosch
Cancer Research Program, Hospital del Mar Research Institute (HMRI), Unidad Asociada IIBB-CSIC, Barcelona, Spain
Pablo García de Frutos
Department of Cell Death and Proliferation, IIBB-CSIC, Unidad Asociada IMIM/IIBB-CSIC, Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red de Enfermedades Cardiovasculares (CIBERCV), and IDIBAPS, Barcelona, Spain; Corresponding author.
Pilar Navarro
Department of Cell Death and Proliferation, Institute of Biomedical Research of Barcelona (IIBB)-CSIC and Institut d’Investigacions Biomèdiques August Pi Sunyer (IDIBAPS), Barcelona, Spain; Cancer Research Program, Hospital del Mar Research Institute (HMRI), Unidad Asociada IIBB-CSIC, Barcelona, Spain; Corresponding author. Department of Cell Death and Proliferation, Institute of Biomedical Research of Barcelona (IIBB)-CSIC and Institut d’Investigacions Biomèdiques August Pi Sunyer (IDIBAPS), Barcelona, Spain.
Summary: Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) represents the most prevalent type of pancreatic cancer and ranks among the most aggressive tumours, with a 5-year survival rate of less than 11%. Projections indicate that by 2030, it will become the second leading cause of cancer-related deaths. PDAC presents distinctive hallmarks contributing to its dismal prognosis: (i) late diagnosis, (ii) heterogenous and complex mutational landscape, (iii) high metastatic potential, (iv) dense fibrotic stroma, (v) immunosuppressive microenvironment, and (vi) high resistance to therapy. Mounting evidence has shown a role for TAM (Tyro3, AXL, MerTK) family of tyrosine kinase receptors in PDAC initiation and progression. This review aims to describe the impact of TAM receptors on the defining hallmarks of PDAC and discuss potential future directions using these proteins as novel biomarkers for early diagnosis and targets for precision therapy in PDAC, an urgent unmet clinical need.
