Clinical significance of tumor marker in pancreatic cancer

Abstract

Cancer is defined as a diverse spectrum of diseases that is characterized by abnormal growth of cells and the spread of these cells throughout the body. More than 100 different types of cancer have been reported. Other terms used to denote cancer include malignant neoplasm and malignant tumors. About 13 million cases of cancer have been reported worldwide. The global burden is expected to grow to 21.4 million new cancer cases by 2030. Globally, one in every eight deaths has been attributed to cancer. Cancer is the leading cause of death in developed countries and the second leading cause of death in developing countries. Cancer of the pancreas is a highly lethal disease accounting for about 2.7% of all cancer cases in the world. Most pancreatic cancer patients die within the first year of diagnosis, and just 6% survive five years. The lack of significant progress in prevention, early diagnosis, and treatment underlines the need for additional efforts in pancreatic cancer research. Surgical therapy, Chemotherapy and Radio Therapy are commonly available to treat the Pancreatic Cancer Patients. A tumor marker is a biochemical parameter or a biomarker which can be potentially used to monitor or diagnose a tumor by the presence or absence of it. These biomarkers may not be present in normal conditions. Hence the levels of these markers in blood, urine or tissues may help the physician to diagnose or to understand a patient's prognosis with the disease condition. The clinically important Tumor Markers are CEA, CA125, AFP, CA19-9, PSA and enzyme marker like GGT, Serum Alkaline Phosphates, Amylase, LDH, Lipase. Known as the silent disease, it is the need of the hour to develop sensitive assays and methods for the diagnosis of pancreatic cancer at the early stages when it is treatable. These tumor markers which can be assessed in the serum can be a prognostic or helpful in diagnosis of the subtype of cancers but not effectively diagnose due to the lack of sensitivity and specificity of these markers. The detection of serum tumor markers, CA19.9, CA 125, CA 242 is conductive to early diagnosis of Pancreatic Cancer and the combination of these markers helps to improve the diagnosis efficacy. CA 19.9 is an independent prognostics factor for patients with Pancreatic Cancer. Understanding about pancreatic cancer and its marker that help in early disease diagnosis and treatment preference will be discussed in this review.