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Pancreatic cancer is the tenth most common cancer in the United States, but the fourth most common cause of cancer death. This disparity is due, in part, to the disease’s elusive nature. Because the pancreas is located deep in the abdomen, symptoms often present only after cancer has spread to other places in the body. But this week, a team of researchers from the Ó³»­´«Ã½, , MIT, and elsewhere reported the discovery of metabolic changes that indicate early development of the disease.

Although the mechanism linking the metabolic change to the cancer remains to be determined, the finding, which was published in , is expected to spur new strategies for the early detection of pancreatic tumors. 

In this edition of Ó³»­´«Ã½ Paper Vids, Clary Clish, co-first author of the paper and director of the Ó³»­´«Ã½â€™s Metabolite Profiling Platform, discusses the project’s origins, findings, and next steps.

Paper Cited:
Clish, Mayers, Wu, et al. . Nature Medicine. doi:10.1038/nm.3686.