Application of laser capture microdissection combined with two-dimensional electrophoresis for the discovery of differentially regulated proteins in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma.

Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is the most lethal of all the common malignancies and markers for early detection or targets for treatment of this disease are urgently required. The disease is characterised by a strong stromal response, with cancer cells usually representing a relatively small proportion of the cells in the tumor mass. We therefore performed laser capture microdissection (LCM) to enrich for both normal and malignant pancreatic ductal epithelial cells.