['Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is a lethal malignancy associated with poor survival rates. Fast detection of PDAC appears to be the most relevant strategy to improve the long-term survival of patients.', 'Our objective was to identify new markers in peripheral blood that differentiates between PDAC patients and healthy controls.', 'Peripheral blood samples from PDAC patients (n\xa0=\xa018) and controls (n\xa0=\xa018) were analyzed by whole genome cDNA microarray hybridization. The most relevant genes were validated by quantitative real-time PCR (RT-qPCR) in the same set of samples. Finally, our gene prediction set was tested in a blinded set of new peripheral blood samples (n\xa0=\xa030).', 'Microarray studies identified 87 genes differentially expressed in peripheral blood samples from PDAC patients. Four of these genes were selected for analysis by RT-qPCR, which confirmed the previously observed changes. In our blinded validation study, the combination of CLEC4D and IRAK3 predicted the diagnosis of PDAC with 93\xa0% accuracy, with a sensitivity of 86\xa0% and specificity of 100\xa0%.'] Does transcriptional profiling of peripheral blood in pancreatic adenocarcinoma patients identify diagnostic biomarkers?