Dimitrakopoulos C, et al. - Via a multicenter study of two independent cohorts with pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) who underwent resection of their tumors, researchers evaluated noninvasive genetic biomarkers that could guide therapy in cases that were amenable to pancreatic cancer resection. They found two single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in noncoding, functional regions of genes that regulate cancer progression, invasion, and metastasis (CHI3L2 SNP rs684559 and CD44 SNP rs353630). Hence, identified polymorphisms easily available at the time of PDAC diagnosis could be a noninvasive biomarker signature of prospective survival post-pancreatic resection. A subset of high-risk patients with PDAC and very low survival could be found with these signatures who may be appropriate for clinical trials of new therapeutic strategies, like neoadjuvant chemotherapy protocols. The direction of the development of individualized genomic strategies for PDAC therapies could be aided by biological knowledge about these SNPs.