Investigational blood biomarker panel may improve detection of pancreatic cancer
A Penn Medicine study shows that a biomarker blood panel that incorporates four different proteins enhances the detection of pancreatic cancer compared to measuring CA19-9 levels alone.
2 min. read
A biomarker blood panel that incorporates four different proteins—ANPEP, PIGR, CA19-9, and THBS2—enhances the detection of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) compared to measuring CA19-9 levels alone, according to a study led by researchers from the Perelman School of Medicine. The study is published in Clinical Cancer Research, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research.
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PDAC, which forms from the exocrine cells in the pancreas, is the most common form of pancreatic cancer, accounting for about 95% of cases. When detected at a localized, early stage, the five-year relative survival is about 44%, but once the disease has metastasized, the five-year survival drops to 3%. Most cases of pancreatic cancer are diagnosed at late stages.
“Pancreatic cancer usually doesn't present with symptoms until it's too late for surgery, when the cancer has already metastasized to other parts of the body,” says Kenneth S. Zaret, senior author of the study and a professor of cell and developmental biology. “Our goal was to look for biomarkers in the blood that appear in early-stage PDAC patients, to catch the disease early,” he says.
CA19-9 is a protein that is released into the blood by both cancer cells and normal pancreatic cells, and elevated levels of CA19-9 in the blood can be a sign of pancreatic cancer or other diseases. THBS2 (thrombospondin 2) is a protein that is expressed in PDAC tumor tissue, and when screened for in blood alongside CA19-9 using a bioassay, enables the test to better discriminate between PDAC and healthy patients, according to previous work from Zaret and colleagues. However, Zaret notes that these biomarkers are insufficient for routine early detection.
“CA19-9 is widely used to monitor diagnosed pancreatic cancer but isn’t recommended as a standalone screening test—benign conditions can elevate it in some people, while others may have low levels, even if they have pancreatic cancer. THBS2 is investigational and can complement CA19-9, but its prediagnostic performance has been mixed,” Zaret says.
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