There are currently few effective therapeutic options for patients with pancreatic cancer. New insights into the pathogenesis of this disease are desperately needed to provide more effective treatment options for these patients. This session will address four major research areas that have the potential to impact approaches to therapeutics in pancreatic cancer in the near future: targeting cancer stem cells, the development of more effective anti-Ras therapies, the impact of genetically-engineered mouse models on understanding tumor biology and preclinical drug evaluation, and the implications of determining a full genetic profile of pancreatic cancer.
New Concepts in Organ Site Research: Basic and Translational Advances in Pancreatic Cancer Treatment

KRAS: Time to acknowledge the elephant in the room?; Channing J. Der. Univ. of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC

Targeting pancreatic cancer stem cells; Diane M. Simeone. Univ. of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI

Pancreatic cancer models and medicine; David A. Tuveson. CRUK Cambridge Research Institute, Cambridge, United Kingdom

Exploring the pancreatic genome; Kenneth W. Kinzler. Ludwig Center at Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD,