Summary

Pancreatic cancer is a lethal disease with unknown etiology.Chronic pancreatitis is a common chronic inflammatory disease，which affects the structural integrity and functions of pancreas.Clinical and experimental studies have suggested that chronic pancreatitis is a major risk factor for pancreatic cancer，whereas numerous extrinsic and intrinsic pathways have been linked to chronic pancreatitis to pancreatic cancer pathogenesis.Intriguingly，many genetic and epigenetic alterations are commonly detected in both chronic pancreatitis and pancreatic cancer tissues，while therapy targeting some alterations produces certain efficacy in pancreatic cancer treatment.However，chronic pancreatitis and pancreatic cancer patients have entirely distinct prognosis and require different management，differential diagnosis between them in clinic is extremely important.Most cancer biomarker studies using modern technologies are methodologically flawed as they compare samples from cancer patients with those from healthy，inflammation-free people.Future studies regarding pancreatic cancer biomarker discovery should exclude those molecules that are dysregulated in chronic pancreatitis tissues，thus uncovering pancreatic cancer specific biomarkers for diagnosis and treatment.

Acknowledgment Funding:Supported in part by grants R01-CA129956，R01-CA148954，R01CA152309 and R01CA172233，and R01CA195651；and grant No.81402017 from NSFC of China.(https://www.daowen.com)

Conflicts of Interest:The authors disclose no conflicts.