Establishment of a non-invasive detecting test for pancreatic cancer using urine

Abstract

Pancreatic cancer has a high mortality rate and so early detection is important. However, many patients remain asymptomatic until the disease has reached an advanced stage. Therefore, researchers on a global scale are searching for ways to facilitate early detection of the disease. Associate Professor Tomoaki Ito, Juntendo University, School of Medicine, Juntendo University Shizuoka Hospital, Japan, is one such researcher. He is a gastrointestinal surgeon who is working to uncover non-invasive ways of detecting pancreatic cancer early. He and his team's non-invasive detecting test involves a urine test and detecting methylated DNA in pancreatic cancer patients. This involves quantitative methylation-specific PCR, which enables the researchers to measure, compare and analyse the methylation DNA of multiple genes and is helpful in reducing the traditional costs associated with methylation research. Ito and the team have clarified that pancreatic tissue has higher methylation of some genes than normal tissue. Through their work, Ito and the team hope to develop a new, completely non-invasive diagnostic method that will help improve the rate of early cancer detection in pancreatic cancer patients. In addition, it may be possible to extend the methods developed by the researchers for use in the early detection of other cancers.