# Subtypes of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma and their differing responses to therapy

Source: https://onco.cc/key-papers/paper-collisson-pancreatic-subtypes-nat-med-2011/  
OnCo record `paper-collisson-pancreatic-subtypes-nat-med-2011` (Key paper). Data CC BY-NC 4.0, attribute "Data from OnCo (onco.cc)"; commercial use needs a licence.

## TL;DR

The first gene-expression subtypes of pancreatic cancer, classical, quasi-mesenchymal and exocrine-like, came from pooling tumour and cell-line profiles, and the authors showed the types differ in outcome and in how cell lines respond to drugs.

## Summary

Because tumour specimens were scarce, transcriptional profiles of primary pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma samples from several studies were combined with human and mouse cell lines. Three subtypes were defined, classical, quasi-mesenchymal and exocrine-like, with evidence for clinical outcome and therapeutic response differences between them. Gene signatures for the subtypes and preclinical model systems for finding subtype-specific therapies were presented.

## Fields

- Kind: Key paper
- Last checked: 2026-09-24
- Journal: Nature Medicine
- Year: 2011
- DOI: 10.1038/nm.2344
- Authors: Collisson EA, Sadanandam A, Olson P, et al.
- Findings: Three subtypes: classical, quasi-mesenchymal, exocrine-like.; Outcome and cell-line drug response differed by subtype.
- What it means: It opened the subtype programme that Moffitt, Bailey and COMPASS refined; the classical versus mesenchymal or basal split has survived every re-analysis.
- Caveats: Small, heterogeneous primary datasets and cell lines.; The exocrine-like class was later attributed to acinar contamination.

## Sources

- Collisson et al., Nat Med 2011: classical, quasi-mesenchymal and exocrine-like subtypes: https://doi.org/10.1038/nm.2344
- PubMed: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21460848/

## Connected records

- cancers: [Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma](https://onco.cc/cancers/pancreatic/)
- technologies: [RNA sequencing & expression profiling](https://onco.cc/technologies/rna-seq/)
- targets: [KRAS](https://onco.cc/targets/kras/)
- institutions: [UCSF Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center](https://onco.cc/institutions/ucsf/)
- journals: [Nature Medicine](https://onco.cc/journals/nature-medicine/)

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