Meanwhile, research led by U-M gastroenterologist Michelle Anderson, presented in a poster at the DDW meeting, may help spare some patients surgery. By looking for gene expression levels of three genes in samples of pancreatic tissue taken by fine-needle aspiration biopsy, Anderson and her colleagues found that they could pinpoint the nature of previously indeterminate lesions. If the results can be replicated in a larger clinical trial currently being planned, this approach could help prevent surgery for patients whose biopsy shows they have pancreatitis, not cancer.
The research team receives funding from the Michigan Life Sciences Corridor, the Lustgarten Foundation for Pancreatic Cancer Research, the U-M Comprehensive Cancer Center, and the National Cancer Institute.
In addition to Simeone, Logsdon, Li and Anderson, the research team includes Baoan Ji, Ph.D., who presented the CEACAM 1 data, Beth Weinman, James M. Scheiman, Lizhi Zhang, Vijaya Ramachandran, David Hu, Michael Uhler, Thiruvengadam Arumugam, Samir Hanash, Thomas Giordano, Joel K. Greenson and Jeremy M. Taylor.
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Contact: Kara Gavin
kegavin@umich.edu
734-764-2220
University of Michigan Health System
19-May-2004