Drug resistance in pancreatic cancer: New player caught in act

Most human cancers display high levels of heterogeneity, a feature that often impacts negatively on the response to treatments. Indeed, while radio and/or chemotherapy initially cause remission of the tumor mass, residual neoplastic cells that are capable to withstand treatments can often give rise to tumor relapse, which typically presents with more aggressive and sometimes lethal phenotypes. In this regard, pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) represents a remarkable example. PDAC is a devastating disease with a poor clinical outcome, which is mainly due to late diagnosis, resistance to chemotherapy and radiation and lack of specific targeted therapies [1,2].