Pancreatic Ductal Adenocarcinoma Arising in Young and Old Patients Displays Similar Molecular Features

• Main Authors: Jérôme Raffenne, Fernando A. Martin, Rémy Nicolle, Marina Konta, Yuna Blum, Jérôme Torrisani, Francesco Puleo, Jean Baptiste Bachet, Magali Svrcek, Armel Bardier-Dupas, Jean Francois Emile, Peter Demetter, Miroslav Radman, Jean Luc Van Laethem, Pascal Hammel, Vinciane Rebours, Valérie Paradis, Anne Couvelard, Jérôme Cros
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2021-03-01
• Series: Cancers
• Subjects: PDAC; young patients; elderly patients; multi-omics
• Online Access: https://www.mdpi.com/2072-6694/13/6/1234

Pancreatic ducal adenocarcinoma is classically diagnosed in the 7th decade, but approximately 10% of patients are diagnosed under 55 years (y.o.). While the genomic and transcriptomic landscapes of late-onset tumors (LOT) have been described, little is known about early-onset tumors (EOT). Ageing is known to impact DNA methylation and proteome integrity through carbonylation-related oxidative damages. We therefore aimed to assess the global molecular features of EOT. We compared 176 EOT (≤55 y.o.) and 316 LOT (≥70 y.o.) from three distinct surgical cohorts at the clinical/genomic/epigenomic/transcriptomic level. Furthermore, we assessed oxidative stress responses and oxidative proteome damages using 2D gel electrophoresis followed by mass spectrometry protein identification. There was no consistent clinical difference between EOT and LOT across the three cohorts. The mutational landscape of key driver genes and the global methylation profile were similar in the two groups. LOT did display age-related features such as enriched DNA repair gene signatures and upregulation of oxidative stress defenses together with increased proteome carbonylation. However, these age-related differences were more preeminent in non-tumor tissues while tumor proteome and proteome damages were fairly comparable. In conclusion, this multi-omics comparison showed that EOT harbor a comparable molecular profile to that of LOT.