Nanotechnology and pancreatic cancer management: State of the art and further perspectives

Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) represents a leading cause of cancerdeath and is often diagnosticated too late to allow adequate treatments. Lots ofbiomarkers have been discovered in lasts years but, to date, there is a lack of lowcostand non-invasive tools for PDAC early detection. Nonetheless, drugscommonly used in PDAC treatment do not allow achieving long-term satisfyingresults. Nanotechnology is gaining importance in both PDAC early detection andtreatment. The main implications of nanotechnology in cancer diagnosis lay in theability that nanoparticles have on concentrate the alteration in human proteomecaused by cancer. Nanoparticle-enabled blood tests have been demonstrated toreach high rate of sensitivity (up to 85%) and specificity (up to 100%). In the fieldof cancer therapy nanoparticles can be used as nanocarriers able to reach specifictumour’s cells and selectively release the drug they contain into them. A literaturereview was carried out with the aim to assess the state of the art and highlight thefuture perspectives of nanotechnology in PDAC early detection and therapy.