title: Usefulness of a new tumor marker, Span-1, for the diagnosis of pancreatic cancer.
abstract: Levels of serum Span-1, a new tumor marker for pancreatic cancer, were assayed in 64 patients with pancreatic cancer, 90 with nonpancreatic cancer, and 254 with nonmalignancies, involving 55 healthy controls. Furthermore, Span-1 was compared with other tumor markers (CA19-9, carcinoembryonic antigen [CEA], and DU-PAN-2). Frequency of elevated Span-1 levels was 81.3% in pancreatic cancer. False-positive elevations of serum Span-1 levels were rather common in liver cirrhosis (53.8%) and chronic hepatitis (26.3%). The sensitivity, specificity, and efficiency of this assay for pancreatic cancer, was 81.3%, 75.6%, and 76.5% against all subjects without pancreatic cancer, respectively. In comparison with other markers, sensitivity of Span-1 tended to be highest with similar specificity to those of CA19-9 and CEA. The Span-1 assay has a high sensitivity and specificity for pancreatic cancer. It is almost equivalent to CA19-9 assay. However, this assay is not specific for chronic liver diseases.
authors.affiliation: 2nd Department of Internal Medicine, Nagoya University School of Medicine, Japan.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kiriyama
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Hayakawa
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Kondo
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Shibata
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kitagawa
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Ono
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Sakai
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000951:Antigens, Neoplasm / Q000032:analysis*; D015295:Antigens, Tumor-Associated, Carbohydrate / Q000032:analysis; D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor / Q000032:analysis*; D002272:Carcinoembryonic Antigen / Q000032:analysis; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010190:Pancreatic Neoplasms / Q000276:immunology*; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D012016:Reference Values
chemical_list: D000951:Antigens, Neoplasm; D015295:Antigens, Tumor-Associated, Carbohydrate; D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor; D002272:Carcinoembryonic Antigen; C042317:DU-PAN-2 antigen, human; C059729:pancreatic associated antigen, SPan-1