He added: “With pancreatic cancer, patients are usually diagnosed when the cancer is already at a terminal stage, but if diagnosed at stage 2, the survival rate is 20 per cent, and at stage 1, the survival rate for patients with very small tumours can increase up to 60 per cent”. It has the lowest five-year survival rate of any common cancer and one that has barely improved in 40 years.
Advertisement
Experts hailed an “exciting” breakthrough which means disease which is now only spotted when it is too late to treat could be spotted many years earlier.
A simple test could identify the deadliest cancers sooner and save thousands of lives, a new study suggests.
So what’s the actual story? An additional 117 samples from patients with other benign and malignant liver and gall bladder conditions were also included. “It is an inert and much much less complicated fluid than blood and might be repeatedly and non-invasively examined”.
And further studies they carried out, in a larger number of patients, showed tentative signs that this might be the case.
Around 1,500 proteins were found in the urine samples, but “based on biological information and performance in statistical analysis” they focused on three: LYVE1, REG1A and TFF1, The Guardian reported.
The researchers tested nearly 500 urine samples, with fewer than 200 patients with pancreatic cancer, 92 from patients with chronic pancreatitis and 87 from healthy volunteers. So in combination, the set of proteins seems to be fairly good at differentiating healthy individuals from patients. At present, only about 3% of patients found to have pancreatic cancer survive more than five years.
So before we go galloping down the road to clinical tests, there are some key questions that still need answering.
According to the National Institute of Health, almost 50,000 Americans will be diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in 2015. What is more, the symptoms of pancreatic cancer – which include belly or back pain, weight loss and digestive problems – can be misdiagnosed as chronic pancreatitis, which presents similar symptoms.
The team found three indicators (“markers”) that, when combined, signal the beginnings of pancreatic cancer. “And survival from pancreatic cancer remains stubbornly low”. As the risk of cancer increase with age, it is crucial to see if the results are the same when comparing apples to apples.
The team is hoping to do further tests on urine samples from people at high risk to further validate their findings.
Over 80% of people with the disease are diagnosed when it has already spread, so they are not eligible for surgery to remove the tumour, which is now the only potential cure.
But the question of whom could benefit from such a test still remains.
As with other cancers, the earlier a patient is diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, the greater their likelihood of successful treatment.
“This is an exciting finding and we hope to see this research taken forward into a much needed early diagnostic test”
.
Advertisement
“We’ve always been keen to develop a diagnostic test in urine as it has several advantages over using blood”.
