Possible Good News for Pancreatic Cancer Detection

[tink2424]

Just read this article about a possible breakthrough with a blood test to detect pancreatic cancer. If this works as it seems that would be GREAT for so many people since this is such a hard to detect cancer and is basically untreatable at stage 4.

https://www.newsmax.com/health/health-news/blood-test-cancer-pancreas/2024/04/08/id/1160164/

Blood Test Accurately Detects Early Pancreatic Cancer​

(Adobe Stock)
Monday, 08 April 2024 12:52 PM EDT


A blood test appears capable of detecting early-stage pancreatic cancers with up to 97% accuracy, a new study reports.
The test looks for eight small RNA particles and eight larger DNA markers shed by pancreatic cancers, which together create a genetic “signature” for the disease, researchers said.
Currently, it’s tough to catch pancreatic cancer before it has reached an advanced stage. The organ is located deep in the abdomen, and the cancer has symptoms that can be mistakenly attributed to other diseases.

“Pancreatic cancer is one of the most fatal malignancies, in large part because the majority of patients are diagnosed only after the cancer has already metastasized,” senior researcher Ajay Goel, chair of molecular diagnostics and experimental therapeutics at City of Hope Cancer Center said in a news release.
The five-year survival rate for patients diagnosed with early-stage pancreatic cancer is 44%, but that drops to 3% if the cancer is caught after it has spread elsewhere in the body, researchers noted.
An earlier trial of this blood test in 95 patients from the U.S. and Japan found a detection rate of 98%.
This latest trial involved 523 people with pancreatic cancer and 461 healthy people from Japan, the U.S., South Korea and China.
The blood test detected:

• 93% of pancreatic cancers among the U.S. participants.
• 91% of pancreatic cancers among the South Koreans.
• 88% of pancreatic cancers in the Chinese group.

When researchers combined the blood test with a test for an already-established pancreatic cancer marker called CA 19-9, the accuracy increased to 97% of stage 1 and 2 cancers among the U.S. participants.
Stage 1 pancreatic cancers are confined to the organ, while stage 2 have spread to nearby lymph nodes but not elsewhere.

“Our approach offers a liquid biopsy test superior to CA19-9 measurement alone for early-stage disease,” Goel said.
However, researchers said more research is needed to validate the test before it can be deployed to the general population.
Researchers were scheduled to present the trial results Monday at a meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research in San Diego. Findings presented at medical meetings should be considered preliminary until published in a peer-reviewed journal.


Read Newsmax: Blood Test Accurately Detects Early Pancreatic Cancer | Newsmax.com

 

[Minnesota!]

incredible!!

 

[Kitty 34]

 

[Dan Murphy]

Sounds great. Thanks for sharing.

 

[BlueStarryHat]

I have been living with a 3cm lesion on my pancreas for three years now. So far, my doctor isn't worried because it's staying the same size. I was informed that they don't start worrying until it reaches 5cm. Why it can't be treated when it's smaller I'm sure I don't know, but for right now I have an MRI every year to keep an eye on it. This is good news!

 

[Skippy918]

Wow! That’s amazing! My husband lost a friend to pancreatic cancer. By the time he was diagnosed it was stage 4 and too late.

 

[tink2424]

Wow! That’s amazing! My husband lost a friend to pancreatic cancer. By the time he was diagnosed it was stage 4 and too late.

Yeah, my Mom has too... And it is something she worries about and she doesn't worry about much. Glad to hear that there is some early testing that should hopefully be available all over soon!

 

[QueenIsabella]

This is fabulous news! Typically, pancreatic cancer is asymptomatic until stage 4. Both my father and father-in-law died from it. FIL , they found it due to him having blood clots. With my dad, he went in for what was supposed to be minor gall bladder surgery, and he was already stage 4--and asymptomatic (and continued to be for a couple months, once they removed the gall bladder).

We've waited decades for good news like this--too late for our dads, but maybe this can help other people.

 

[LuvOrlando]

WOW, I hope it is fast tracked! I am BRCA2 so high risk for this. At the moment, I am on a MRI and a sonogram guided endoscopy regimen. No idea if it would catch it fast enough but I am doing all there is available right now plus the method is invasive, this would be so very much better!

I was reading research about the RNA particles being studied, apparently there are teeny tiny changes that happen very early that can be seen if someone is looking.