In pancreatic cancer cells, the expression of Hsp27 is abnormally high. Increased HSP27 expression in tumor specimens was related to higher resistibility to gemcitabine in patients of pancreatic cancer. HSP27 may play an important role in the resistibility to gemcitabine, and it could also be a possible biomarker for predicting the response of pancreatic cancer patients to treatment with gemcitabine.

The figure shows the ROC curve for Hsp27 serum concentration for patients with pancreatic carcinoma and controls. According to Melle et al. (2007), Clin. Chem., 2007; 53: 629 - 635.