title: Serum pancreatic oncofetal antigen: its clinical usefulness for screening pancreatic cancer in combination with tests for other tumor markers.
abstract: Screening for pancreatic cancer was carried out by serum pancreatic oncofetal antigen (POA) tests in 440 out-patients with abdominal complaints, with concomitant assay of carcinoembryonic antigen, alpha-fetoprotein and ferritin. POA was positive in 13 patients, of whom 3 cases of pancreatic cancer, and 4 of other malignant diseases were diagnosed while the remaining 6 were non-malignant. Of these out-patients, 5 cases were finally diagnosed as having pancreatic cancer by further examinations. Of these 5 patients, POA was negative in 2, of whom one was positive for CEA and AFP. Accordingly, when POA test was applied concomitantly with the other 3 marker tests, the detection rate of pancreatic cancer was elevated to 4/5. Twenty-three patients were found to have malignant diseases and 20 of them were positive for at least one of the 4 markers tested. These results suggest that serum POA assay is useful for screening the pancreatic cancer, especially when the other tumor markers are assayed concomitantly.
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000951:Antigens, Neoplasm / Q000032:analysis*; D001661:Biliary Tract Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis; D002272:Carcinoembryonic Antigen / Q000032:analysis; D005260:Female; D005293:Ferritins / Q000097:blood; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010190:Pancreatic Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis*; D013274:Stomach Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis; D000509:alpha-Fetoproteins / Q000032:analysis
chemical_list: D000951:Antigens, Neoplasm; D002272:Carcinoembryonic Antigen; D000509:alpha-Fetoproteins; C031192:oncofetal antigens; D005293:Ferritins