Dr. Colin Weekes on Molecular Phenotyping in Pancreatic Cancer

Colin Weekes, MD, PhD, associate professor, Department of Medicine and Medical Oncology, University of Colorado, on molecular phenotyping in pancreatic cancer. Weekes says molecular phenotyping is already happening in cancers like lung cancer, and the benefit of phenotyping is that medical professionals can give proper treatments to patients by targeting those phenotypes. He adds that phenotyping changes the outcomes in small, unique patient populations, which in turn that information then aids in the treatment of patients overall.

Weekes says the difficulty in phenotyping for pancreatic cancer is the stroma component of the disease. He says the answer for phenotyping in that particular cancer comes down to better understanding the tumor microenvironment and its interaction with the patient’s genetic makeup.