Assessing the merits of existing pancreatic cancer biomarkers

Abstract

Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) suffers from a very poor prognosis because early stages of the disease are asymptomatic and thus diagnosis is delayed until late. Discovering a suitable PDAC biomarker could thereby improve PDAC treatment by having an early diagnosis. The carbohydrate antigen, CA 19-9, currently used for diagnostics, may help in assessing the disease stage, however it is unsuitable for screening purposes. PDAC specific nucleotides can be detected in plasma but not at the early stages of the cancer. Furthermore, measuring circulating tumour cells (CTCs) in patient blood entails high costs and is only useful for advanced stage disease. Other potential PDAC marker candidates are Laminin g2A, Cyclophilin B and blood circulating adipokines, which seem to hold particular promise. At present, making early PDAC diagnosis is limited. The potential markers described herein might in the future be introduced into clinical practice however further studies are still required. Using combinations of several biomarkers also merit consideration, which may increase the overall sensitivity and specificity of PDAC detection.