Tan HF, Hu XY, Yao X, Zhang R, Tang JF, Zhou CF. Metastasis-associated in colon cancer 1 in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma: Emerging evidence, unresolved questions, and future perspectives. World J Gastrointest Oncol 2026; 18(10): 120308 [DOI: 10.4251/wjgo.120308]
Corresponding Author of This Article
Ce-Fan Zhou, PhD, School of Life and Health Sciences, Institute of Biomedical Research, National “111” Center for Cellular Regulation and Molecular Pharmaceutics, Key Laboratory of Fermentation Engineering (Ministry of Education), Hubei University of Technology, No. 28 Nanli Road, Wuhan 430068, Hubei Province, China. cefan@hbut.edu.cn
Research Domain of This Article
Cell Biology
Article-Type of This Article
review-article
Open-Access Policy of This Article
This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Baishideng Publishing Group Inc, 7041 Koll Center Parkway, Suite 160, Pleasanton, CA 94566, USA
Share the Article
Tan HF, Hu XY, Yao X, Zhang R, Tang JF, Zhou CF. Metastasis-associated in colon cancer 1 in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma: Emerging evidence, unresolved questions, and future perspectives. World J Gastrointest Oncol 2026; 18(10): 120308 [DOI: 10.4251/wjgo.120308]
Hong-Fei Tan, Xue-Yuan Hu, Xia Yao, Rui Zhang, Jing-Feng Tang, Ce-Fan Zhou, School of Life and Health Sciences, Institute of Biomedical Research, National “111” Center for Cellular Regulation and Molecular Pharmaceutics, Key Laboratory of Fermentation Engineering (Ministry of Education), Hubei University of Technology, Wuhan 430068, Hubei Province, China
Author contributions: Tan HF and Hu XY wrote the original draft; Tang JF and Zhou CF contributed to the conceptualization, writing, review, and editing of the manuscript; and Yao X and Zhang R provided valuable opinions; all authors have reviewed and approved the final version of the manuscript.
AI contribution statement: The authors used DeepL and Grammarly only for language polishing and grammatical correction. The scientific content and conclusions were written and verified by the authors.
Supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China, No. 32270768 to Zhou CF and No. 82273970 to Tang JF; Innovation Group Project of Hubei Province, No. 2023AFA026 to Tang JF; the Key Cultivation Project of Hubei Province for Science and Technology, No. 2024DJA037 to Tang JF; and the National Natural Science Foundation of Hubei, No. 2025AFA086 to Zhou CF.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All the authors report no relevant conflicts of interest for this article.
Corresponding author: Ce-Fan Zhou, PhD, School of Life and Health Sciences, Institute of Biomedical Research, National “111” Center for Cellular Regulation and Molecular Pharmaceutics, Key Laboratory of Fermentation Engineering (Ministry of Education), Hubei University of Technology, No. 28 Nanli Road, Wuhan 430068, Hubei Province, China. cefan@hbut.edu.cn
Received: February 24, 2026 Revised: April 28, 2026 Accepted: June 15, 2026 Published online: October 15, 2026 Processing time: 205 Days and 17.7 Hours
Abstract
Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is a malignant tumor with a poor prognosis. Metastasis-associated in colon cancer 1 (MACC1) has been implicated in the progression of multiple malignancies; however, its role in PDAC has not been fully clarified. This review summarizes the relevant evidence of the biological functions and molecular mechanisms of MACC1 in PDAC. Its mechanism of action may involve MET/extracellular signal-regulated kinase/protein kinase B, protein kinase B/mammalian target of rapamycin, epithelial-mesenchymal transition, and p53/Notch-related signaling pathways. In addition, MACC1 is regulated by upstream non-coding RNAs. However, existing studies remain limited by inadequate mechanistic validation and insufficient consideration of molecular heterogeneity. Future studies should integrate phenotype-oriented analyses, mechanistic validation, and genotype-stratified approaches to comprehensively clarify the functional role of MACC1 in PDAC.
Core Tip: Current evidence indicates that metastasis-associated in colon cancer 1 is not just a simple prognostic marker of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma but is also involved in tumor invasion, metastasis, chemotherapy resistance, and multiple signaling pathways, and is regulated by upstream non-coding RNAs. However, its key functions, mechanistic hierarchy, and context-dependent roles remain unclear. This review summarizes the existing evidence, unresolved questions, and future research directions, aiming to provide a reference for further elucidating the core regulatory mechanisms of metastasis-associated in colon cancer 1 in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma.
