Table 1.

Sampling materials and methods of clinical application with PDAC samples.

Type of materials	Diagnostic detection	Method of detection	References
ctDNA/ctRNA	Amplification, deletion and translocation Gene driver mutations, Chromosomal abnormalities	PCR Whole genome sequencing Next-generation sequencing	Fabbri et al. (82)
CTCs	Gene expression Cell Proliferation/growth Cell differentiation Cell mobility Apoptosis	Next-generation sequencing Microarray testing qRT-PCR CTC Chip sequencing EPISOT Phenotypic analysis: immunostaining, FACS and LC-MS	Pantel et al. (37)
miRNA	Gene fusion transcripts RNA expression	Next-generation sequencing Microarray testing qRT-PCR	Tesfaye et al. (83)
TEPs	Gene expression	Next-generation sequencing RNA sequencing	Best et al. (84) Joosse et al. (40)

PDAC, pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma; LC-MS, liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry; FACS, fluorescence-activated single cell sorting; qRT-PCR, real time quantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction.