Researchers report a method that combines protein biomarkers with liquid biopsy for early detection of pancreatic cancer. Patients with pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma face a grim prognosis, with fewer than 9% of patients surviving more than 5 years after diagnosis. Studies have shown that surgically removing tumors when they are small and localized improves prognosis. Bert Vogelstein and colleagues combined four cancer protein biomarkers--carbohydrate antigen 19-9, carcinoembryonic antigen, hepatocyte growth factor, and osteopontin--with liquid biopsies of tumor-derived DNA circulating in blood plasma to improve the sensitivity and specificity of diagnosis. The authors applied the combinatorial approach to 221 pancreatic cancer patients with surgically removable tumors and 182 age-matched healthy individuals, and detected tumor-associated mutations in the KRAS gene in the plasma of 66 patients. The mutations matched those found in patients' primary tumors and were not detected in all but one control, reflecting high specificity. Combining KRAS mutations with protein biomarkers at specific thresholds resulted in a diagnostic sensitivity of 64%, compared with sensitivities of 6-49% when each biomarker was used separately. The findings lay the groundwork for prospective studies that combine circulating tumor DNA with protein biomarkers for early diagnosis of pancreatic and other cancers, according to the authors.
Article #17-04961: "Combined circulating tumor DNA and protein biomarker-based liquid biopsy for the earlier detection of pancreatic cancers," by Joshua Cohen et al.
MEDIA CONTACT: Bert Vogelstein, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD; tel: 410-955-8878; e-mail: <bertvog@gmail.com>
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