Signaling Networks that Control Cellular Plasticity in Pancreatic Tumorigenesis, Progression and Metastasis.

Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma is one of the deadliest cancers, with its incidence on the rise. Major challenges in overcoming the poor prognosis presented by this disease lies in late detection and the aggressive biology of the disease. Intra-tumoral heterogeneity, presence of a robust, reactive and desmoplastic stroma as well as the crosstalk between the different tumor components indicate that a complete understanding of the pancreatic tumor biology is required to better understand the therapeutic challenges posed by this disease. In this review, we have discussed the processes involved during tumorigenesis encompassing the inherent plasticity of the transformed cells, development of tumor stroma crosstalk and enrichment of cancer stem cell population during tumorigenesis.