Paradoxical Role of HMGB1 in Pancreatic Cancer: Tumor Suppressor or Tumor Promoter?

Pancreatic cancer has a dismal prognosis and there is an increasing and unmet need to identify better diagnostic and therapeutic targets in order to ameliorate the course of the disease. HMGB1, a nuclear DNA-binding protein that acts as a transcription factor, is currently in the limelight. HMGB1 exhibits a dual role in pancreatic cancer; when intracellular, it acts as an anti-tumor protein stabilizing the genome, whereas extracellular HMGB1 behaves as a pro-tumor protein with cytokine, chemokine and growth factor functions.