Stromal and epithelial proteome landscapes of pancreatic cancer predict poor prognosis and identify therapeutic options

Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is characterized by the presence of relatively few tumor cells surrounded a heterocellular non-cancerous cell population embedded in extracellular matrix, collectively named stroma. Despite the recognition that the stroma is an important contributor to the typically poor outcome of PDAC, its analysis has been hampered by the analysis of bulk tissue. Similar issues have precluded meaningful analysis of the epithelial compartment. Here, we present the proteome analysis of a set of sixteen lasercapture microdissected PDAC samples, investigating tumor and stroma, together with bulk tumor samples, yielding the deepest PDAC proteomic to date.