Blood Test May Spot Pancreatic Cancer Early

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The team found the four biomarkers accurately detect pancreatic cancer 64 percent of the time. In addition, these biomarkers were able to find patients who did not have pancreatic cancer 89 percent of the time.

Toumy Guettouche, manager of the Oncogenomics Core Facility at the Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, thinks this test shows promise, but is far from being ready for "prime time."

"This is an interesting diagnostic method with a lot of potential," Guettouche said.

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However, the sensitivity and specificity of the test is too low, he said. "This would have no chance of getting diagnostic clearance [from the FDA]," he added. It looks for 98 percent accuracy, he noted.

In addition, Guettouche said these same microRNAs have been linked with other cancers. "The problem is to determine pancreatic cancer to begin with," he said.

"What tells you that these upregulated microRNAs are from pancreatic cancer? They could be from another cancer," he said.

More information

For more information on pancreatic cancer, visit the American Cancer Society.

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