Pancreatic cancer is the fourth leading cause of death in Europe. Little known, this disease kills around 300,000 people per year worldwide and 12,000 new diagnoses are made each year in France.
If, in 5% of cases, there is a genetic predisposition in patients, other risk factors are much more important: obesity and smoking, in particular.
However, we know: the earlier a cancer is diagnosed, the more effective its management and the higher the patient’s survival rate. Currently, the 5-year survival rate for pancreatic cancer is 5% – a number that could (perhaps) improve with a major new discovery.
An efficient and inexpensive blood test
Indeed, in the United States, researchers from the University of Pennsylvania have just developed a blood test to diagnose pancreatic cancer early.
This is based on the identification of two biomarkers present in the plasma of people affected by pancreatic cancer: thrombospondin-2 (THBS2) and CA19-9. These two bio-markers have been proven on almost all of the 746 plasma samples tested.
“Thanks to this efficient and inexpensive test, we were able to detect pancreatic cancer at a very early stage, and we were also able to differentiate this disease from pancreatitis, a pathology whose symptoms strongly resemble pancreatic cancer. In short, a particularly useful diagnostic tool …
Source: Science Translational Medicine
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