Abstract
Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is one of the most lethal solid malignancies with increasing incidence. The poor prognosis is due to the aggressive nature of the tumor, late detection, and the resistance to chemotherapy and radiotherapy. A radical surgery procedure is the only treatment that has been shown to improve the 5-year survival rate to 20-25%. However, the majority of patients (80-85%) are diagnosed with locally advanced or metastatic disease and just 15-20% patients are diagnosed in an early stage allowing them to undergo the potentially curative surgical resection. The early detection of PDAC without the use of invasive methods is challenging and discovery of a cost-effective biomarker with high specificity and sensitivity could significantly improve the treatment and survival in these patients. In this review, we summarize current and newly examined biomarkers in early PDAC detection.
Highlights
Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is one of the most lethal solid malignancies with increasing incidence [1] and is the fourth leading cause of cancer-related mortality in the United States and Canada [2,3,4,5].The poor prognosis is due to the aggressive nature of the tumor, late detection, and the resistance to chemotherapy and radiotherapy [6,7,8]
M2-Pyruvate Kinase (M2-PK) has been tested as a potential marker for PDAC; findings reflect lower rates of sensitivity and specificity when compared with carbohydrate antigen 19-9 (CA 19-9)
In contrast to the findings reported above, a 2018 metaanalysis [41] found that serum immunoglobulin G4 (IgG4) has high specificity and relatively low sensitivity in the differential diagnosis between autoimmune pancreatitis (AIP) and pancreatic cancer, and it considers serum IgG4 as useful in distinguishing AIP from PDAC
Summary
Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is one of the most lethal solid malignancies with increasing incidence [1] and is the fourth leading cause of cancer-related mortality in the United States and Canada [2,3,4,5]. Compared to other malignancies, there has been little improvement in the survival rate of patients with PDAC in recent decades [9]. The overall 5-year survival rate is approximately about 5% [2, 3, 10]. Radical surgery has been shown to improve the 5-year survival rate to a 20-25% [12,13,14,15]. Most studies and clinical trials have sought to identify an inexpensive, noninvasive, or minimally invasive biomarker with high sensitivity and specificity for PDAC to improve early diagnosis and subsequent treatment [17]. We will focus on a current view on diagnostic markers for early pancreatic cancer detection.
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
