Abstract: The present invention provides a method of diagnosing, prognosing or screening for pancreatic cancer in a subject. The method may be carried out on a sample such as a blood or tissue sample collected from the subject. The is carried out by (a) detecting one or more markers in a biological sample of said subject, said markers selected from the markers set forth in Table 1 (e.g. one or more markers selected from the group set forth in Table 2, and/or the group consisting of ALCAM, TIMP-1, ICAM1, LCN2, REG1A, REG3, IGFBP4, TNFRSF1A and WFDC2); and (b) determining an altered level of said marker(s), said altered level indicating said subject may be afflicted with or at risk of developing pancreatic cancer. Kits useful for carrying out the methods are also described.

Abstract: The present invention is based, at least in part, on the generation of an animal model of pancreatic adenocarcinoma which recapitulates the genetic and histological features of human pancreatic adenocarcinoma, including the initiation, maintenance, and progression of the disease. Accordingly, the present invention provides animal models of cancer, e.g., pancreatic adenocarcinoma, wherein an activating mutation of Kras has been introduced, and any one or more known or unknown tumor suppressor genes or loci, e.g., Ink4a/Arf, Ink4a, Arf, p53, Smad4/Dpc, Lkb1, Brca2, or Mlh1, have been misexpressed, e.g., have been misexpressed leading to decreased expression or non-expression. The animal models of the invention may be used, for example, to identify biomarkers of pancreatic cancer, to identify agents for the treatment or prevention of pancreatic cancer, and to evaluate the effectiveness of potential therapeutic agents.