Background/Methods:
- Transcriptional profiling of pancreatic cancers (PC) has defined classical and basal subtypes
- Basal subtypes have worse prognosis
- Post therapy Mesenchymal (MES) and neural–like progenitor (NRP) states have been defined
- Initial clinical data suggests differential response of transcriptional subtypes with FOLFIRINOX vs. Gemcitabine-nab-Paclitaxel (Gem/nab-P) in PC.
- Basal tumors may preferentially response to Gem/nab-P Methods: Genomic cohort: 7,250 PCs profiled by Caris Life Sciences
- Clinical cohort: 1,623 PCs with additional clinical data available. Survival data was obtained from insurance claims data. Kaplan-Meier estimates were used for survival analysis.
- Transcriptional cell states were identified using RNA-seq Results: 3,063 tumors (42.2%) were strongly classical (SC), 2,015 tumors (27.8%) were strongly basal (SB) • MES and NRP marker genes were significantly coexpressed with each other, with basal genes, and anti-correlated with classical genes.