Förbättring av pankreascancerdiagnostik genom mätning av telomerlängd hos individuella celler

Every time a cell divides, the ends of the chromosomes - the telomeres - become a bit shorter. This can be used to diagnose diseases related to cell division such as cancer.

However, only a few rare cells may be relevant for diagnostic purposes, and cancer cell telomeres can also become elongated.

As telomere length is currently measured as an average over many cells, such complex events are easily missed and hard to interpret.

To be able to find relevant rare cells and thus increase sensitivity, I propose to develop a new single-cell analysis method that also measures the telomere length.

We will use this method to try to improve the detection of pancreatic cancer, which is currently detected too late, leading to a 11% survival rate, 5-years after diagnosis.The project has three aims: (1) Develop the new method, (2) Analyze telomere length as a marker in T cells, in blood and directly in the tumour, (3) Analyze the telomere length in tumor and cancer cells in pancreas.The output is a new protocol, as well as cell atlases which can tell when the protocol is useful for diagostics.

The cost for one patient may be just ~500 euro, and thus a viable option for follow-up diagnostics of high risk patients.

By comparing blood and tumor, we will know to what extent blood can be used as a less invasive approach for diagnostics. In silico analysis will further tell if minimally invasive fine needle autopsies of the pancreas are a better option.