# Circulating Biomarker Consortium for Pancreatic Cancer Early Detection

> **NIH NIH U01** · DANA-FARBER CANCER INST · 2021 · $748,441

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY (no more than 30 lines of text):
Pancreatic cancer is the fourth-leading cause of cancer death in the U.S. Over 80% of patients present with
incurable disease, and the vast majority live for <12 months. The high mortality of pancreatic ductal
adenocarcinoma (PDAC), the most common form of pancreatic cancer, is largely a consequence of diagnosis
at an advanced stage when the tumor is no longer resectable for cure. However, symptoms rarely develop with
early disease, and established risk factors for PDAC, such as tobacco smoking, obesity, chronic pancreatitis,
diabetes, and family history of PDAC, are insufficient to risk stratify the population for disease screening.
Experimental studies indicate that more than a decade elapses from formation of the founder malignant clone
to a patient's diagnosis, suggesting a window of opportunity for early detection. Nevertheless, no early
detection markers have advanced to clinical use, in part, because little infrastructure has been developed to
facilitate rigorous investigation of promising candidates. To address the critical goal of PDAC early detection,
we have brought together investigators with a long track-record of collaborative innovation to form the
Pancreatic Cancer Circulating Biomarker (Pan-C2-Bio) Consortium. Within this Consortium, we join ongoing
patient biospecimen collection at five large cancer centers with four highly promising early detection
technologies and sophisticated computer modeling to define a non-invasive PDAC screening strategy. The
Consortium will work to achieve three primary goals: (1) generation of a large, unified, thoroughly-annotated
human and murine sample bank for testing of early detection markers, (2) definitive evaluation of four highly
promising PDAC early detection markers for near-term clinical utility, including circulating cell-free DNA
mutations and methylation patterns, cancer-derived exosomes, and metabolism markers, and (3) identification
of biomarker-based screening strategies to facilitate early cancer diagnosis in high-risk groups and the general
population. Thus, the work proposed by the Pan-C2-Bio Consortium will deliver much-needed biospecimen
resources for early detection studies, provide evidence for (or against) the utility of four highly promising PDAC
early detection technologies, and demonstrate how new biomarkers can be integrated with previously
characterized risk factors to identify individuals for disease screening. With this work, we look to reduce
mortality from pancreatic cancer by identifying those at highest risk and diagnosing subclinical disease when
curative therapies can be applied.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10427586
- **Project number:** 3U01CA210171-05S1
- **Recipient organization:** DANA-FARBER CANCER INST
- **Principal Investigator:** Brian Matthew Wolpin
- **Activity code:** U01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** $748,441
- **Award type:** 3
- **Project period:** 2016-07-15 → 2023-06-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10427586

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10427586, Circulating Biomarker Consortium for Pancreatic Cancer Early Detection (3U01CA210171-05S1). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-24 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10427586. Licensed CC0.

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