MSCAN: ctDNA Methylation as Prognostic and Theranostic Tool for Pancreatic Cancer

Pancreatic cancer is a digestive system malignancy characterized by late clinical detection, high malignancy, and poor prognosis. Exploring economically viable, accurate, and minimally invasive methods for early diagnosis and postoperative monitoring is of significant clinical importance to facilitate early screening and improve patient outcomes. Liquid biopsy, which involves detecting various tumor-related biomarkers in extractable bodily fluids, such as circulating tumor cells, circulating tumor DNA, and exosomes, plays a crucial role in the early diagnosis and prognosis of pancreatic cancer. Recent research indicates the substantial impact of liquid biopsy in the early diagnosis and prognosis of pancreatic cancer. Differential methylation regions in ctDNA, as opposed to ctDNA mutations, show promise as potential markers. Aberrant DNA methylation has been demonstrated to be more frequent than DNA mutations in tumor development and often occurs early in carcinogenesis. In this project, whole-genome methylation signal scans are conducted on blood samples and tumor tissue samples from pancreatic cancer using next-generation sequencing. The goal is to identify tumor-specific methylation biomarker sites. Subsequently, targeted sequencing is performed on ctDNA based on these identified sites.