Ambry Genetics and Nationwide Collaborators Begin Prospective Multi-Site Study to Identify Hereditary Pancreatic Cancer

Ambry Genetics (Ambry) and its collaborators at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (Boston, MA), University of Pittsburgh (Pittsburgh, PA), and HonorHealth Research Institute (Scottsdale, AZ) today announce a prospective multi-site research study aimed to determine mutation prevalence, as well as psychological assessment and long-term follow up for treatment and care for pancreatic cancer patients with a hereditary predisposition to the disease.

This study will gather valuable data for an underrepresented group of patients diagnosed with cancer carrying an extremely high mortality rate.

Pancreatic cancer represents 3.1% of all new cancer cases in the U.S., with only 7.7% of people surviving 5 years or more after their diagnosis. Several genetic syndromes caused by inherited gene mutations may pose a risk for pancreatic cancer, leaving an underlying genetic mechanism to be the cause in ~10% of all pancreatic cancer. High risk gene mutations, such as those in the BRCA2 gene, are identified in families presenting with a constellation of tumors (including breast, ovarian, pancreatic cancer) but may go undetected in families with only a clustering of pancreatic tumors or isolated pancreatic cancer cases. Read more . . .