Median survival of patients with pancreatic non-endocrine cancer is less than one year; at late diagnosis, without the possibility of surgical resection, survival is usually less than four months. In only 30% of patients with total pancreatectomy, with small tumors confined to the head of the pancreas, survival is long-term. The importance of early detection is obvious, but difficult to achieve: the disease begins with pain and weight loss, without specific symptoms. Imaging of small pancreatic tumors, even with advanced techniques, is not infallible and reliable; specific laboratory tests, especially for the early stages of the disease when they are most needed, are not available. Apparently specific and frequently overexpressed in pancreatic cancer is MUC4 that shows promises both in diagnostics and therapy.
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