Scientists from the Australian Pancreatic Cancer Genome Initiative and the Garvan Institute of Medical Research have tasted success in sub-categorizing pancreatic cancer into four distinct types, namely squamous, pancreatic progenitor, immunogenic and aberrantly differentiated endocrine exocrine (ADEX). The classification has been arrived at after examining more than 450 pancreatic tumors. Each type of pancreatic cancer has its own distinct features and survival rates.

Revelation of these details will pave a way for the development of new and customized treatment for patients, who will possibly be treated with the procedure meant particularly for the kind of pancreatic cancer they are suffering from. "We have previously shown that pancreatic cancer is not one disease but several -- but now we have identified distinct subgroups in detail, along with the genetic drivers that underpin them,” said researcher Amber Johns.

Pancreatic cancer is considered among the most fatal cancers known to mankind due to being located deep within the abdomen at the back of the stomach. Due to this, the existence of the tumor is not easily felt or diagnosed, which only happens after the cancer has reached its final stages and tumor spreads to other organs.

Till date, no type of screening has been found successful in diagnosing pancreatic cancer at an early stage in order to boost the survival rate. Since the tumor is located at a deeper section, performing surgery is also very tough because a long incision has to be done for reaching the tumor.

Complexities associated with diagnosing and dealing with pancreatic cancer has left the advancement in this field almost stagnant since last 40 years, according to the Hirshberg Foundation for Pancreatic Cancer Research. Patients with pancreatic cancer have a five-year survival rate only in 5% cases. Though this finding is not very huge, but it is still extremely significant for nearly 49,000 patients that are likely to be diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in 2016.