Pancreatic cancer is one of the most dangerous cancers, mostly because it is usually found too late. About 95% of pancreatic cancer cases are a type called pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma, or PDAC.
If doctors catch it early, while it’s still in the pancreas, patients have a much better chance of living longer—up to 44% survive five years. But if the cancer spreads, the survival rate drops to just 3%. Sadly, most cases are not found until the disease has already spread.
Researchers are working hard to find ways to detect this cancer earlier. A new study has found that a special blood test using four different markers may be better at spotting pancreatic cancer than the current test alone. This new test looks at the levels of four proteins in the blood: ANPEP, PIGR, CA19-9, and THBS2.
The study was done by scientists at the University of Pennsylvania and published in the journal Clinical Cancer Research. The goal was to improve early detection using a blood test, so that treatment could begin sooner.
CA19-9 is already used to help monitor pancreatic cancer, but it’s not good enough by itself. Sometimes it is high in people who don’t have cancer, and sometimes it stays low even when a person has cancer. THBS2 is another protein that shows promise but still needs more study.
To find better markers, the researchers studied blood samples from two hospitals—the Mayo Clinic and the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. They tested 672 samples from people with and without cancer. Two proteins, ANPEP and PIGR, stood out because they were higher in people with early-stage PDAC.
By combining all four proteins—ANPEP, PIGR, CA19-9, and THBS2—into one test, the scientists created a new blood panel. In early-stage cancer patients, this test was able to tell the difference between healthy people and those with cancer with high accuracy: 97% in the Mayo group and 96% in the Penn group.
The test also worked well at telling cancer apart from other non-cancer conditions in the pancreas. It correctly detected 91.9% of pancreatic cancers overall and 87.5% of early-stage cases. In comparison, testing for CA19-9 alone found 82.7% of all cases and only 76.2% of early ones.
While the difference in detecting early cases wasn’t large enough to be called statistically certain, it still showed a big improvement. This suggests that the four-part test could help doctors find more cases early on.
The researchers hope this test could one day help screen people at high risk for pancreatic cancer, like those with family history or certain gene changes. It could help doctors decide who needs more testing, such as imaging scans.
However, the study does have limits. It did not include high-risk people, so more research is needed. Also, the study looked at old samples rather than testing people over time, so the results must be confirmed in real-world situations.
Still, this study offers hope that a better blood test could make a big difference in catching pancreatic cancer earlier—when treatment works best.
If you care about cancer, please read studies that a low-carb diet could increase overall cancer risk, and vitamin D supplements could strongly reduce cancer death.
For more information about health, please see recent studies about how drinking milk affects the risks of heart disease and cancer and results showing higher intake of dairy foods linked to higher prostate cancer risk.
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