Pancreatic cancer is a pathology with a high mortality rate since it is detected at advanced stages, so the search for early-stage diagnostic biomarkers is essential. Liquid biopsies are currently being explored for this purpose and educated platelets are a good candidate, since they are known to present a bidirectional interaction with tumor cells. In this work, we analyzed the effects of platelets on cancer cells’ viability, as determined by MTT, migration using transwell assays, clonogenicity in soft agar and stemness by dilution assays and stem markers’ expression. We found that the co-culture of platelets and pancreatic cancer cells increased the proliferation and migration capacity of BXCP3 cells, augmented clonogenicity and induced higher levels of Nanog, Sox2 and Oct4 expression. As platelets can provide horizontal transfer of microRNAs, we also determined the differential expression of miRNAs in platelets obtained from a small cohort of pancreatic cancer patients and healthy subjects. We found clear differences in the expression of several miRNAs between platelets of patients with cancer healthy subjects. Moreover, when we analyzed microRNAs from the platelets of the pancreatic juice and blood derived from each of the cancer patients, interestingly we find differences between the blood- and pancreatic juice-derived platelets suggesting the presence of different subpopulations of platelets in cancer patients, which warrant further analysis.

Pancreatic cancer is considered one of the most aggressive solid tumors. In Mexico, it is the twelfth cause of cancer, with 4,489 cases diagnosed annually, and accounts for 4.9% of oncologic deaths. The aim of our study was to describe the clinical and epidemiologic characteristics of the patients diagnosed with pancreatic cancer spanning an 11-year period at the Instituto Nacional de Ciencias Médicas y Nutrición "Salvador Zubirán". A retrospective, cross-sectional study was conducted that included 479 patients diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, within the time frame of 2003-2013. The documented findings were summarized through descriptive statistics. Of the patients with pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma, 50.9% were women, and the mean patient age at diagnosis was 61.5 years. A total of 48.4% of the cases were diagnosed at clinical stage IV, 12.9% presented with clinical stage III, and 25.0% had localized disease. Surgery was performed on 37.5% of the patients, the most frequent of which was pancreatoduodenectomy. The surgical mortality rate was 5.5%. The clinical characteristics in our study group were similar to those described in the literature. However, the number of candidates for surgical treatment was higher than that reported in other hospitals and the percentage of borderline tumors was lower. Those differences, respectively, are possibly associated with the nature of our referral center and the prolonged intervals between diagnosis and treatment that result in the loss of potential surgical patients.

Background/Objectives: Mirizzi syndrome (MS) alters biliary anatomy, complicating diagnosis and treatment. We characterized diagnostic pathways in reported cases and compared Csendes type I with types II–V. Methods: PubMed and Scopus were searched through 1 July 2026, supplemented by citation searching. Reports of five or fewer patients were eligible. Patient-level diagnostic, treatment, and outcome data were summarized; groups were compared using Fisher’s exact and Mann–Whitney U tests. Results: We included 133 publications reporting 141 patients. MS was diagnosed preoperatively in 115/138 patients (83.3%). Recognition was more frequent in type I than types II–V (92.5% vs. 76.7%; p = 0.037) and among patients with conventional imaging (94.0% vs. 76.0%; p = 0.014). ERCP use and the number of modalities did not differ by diagnostic status. Compared with type I, types II–V more frequently required bile-duct exploration (37.1% vs. 17.0%), underwent open surgery (43.5% vs. 24.5%), and developed bile leak (24.1% vs. 8.5%) or treatment-related bile-duct injury (24.1% vs. 4.3%). Conclusions: Preoperative recognition was common but less frequent in fistulizing forms. Anatomical classification and conventional imaging may assist operative planning, whereas accumulating modalities showed no diagnostic advantage.