Detection of pancreatic adenocarcinoma using circulating fragments of fibrinogen.
BACKGROUND
There is an urgent need for biomarkers to detect pancreatic cancer in the early, potentially curable, stages.


METHODS
We have used SELDI profiling to analyze serum from 75 patients with pancreatic cancer and 61 patients with nonmalignant pancreaticobiliary diseases.


RESULTS
A peak in the SELDI spectra corresponding to a 53 residue fragment of the α-chain of fibrinogen is remarkably elevated in approximately 50% of the cancer patients. In addition, fibrinogen degradation products were measured using the DR-70 assay. The areas under the receiver operating characteristic curves for the SELDI-detected fibrinogen fragment, DR-70 and CA19-9 were 0.65, 0.75 and 0.86, respectively. Class prediction models using combinations of these markers did not increase the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve compared with CA19-9. The novel fibrinogen fragment was not elevated to the same extent in other malignancies but was elevated in some patients with benign pancreatic disease.


CONCLUSIONS
Both the SELDI-detected fragment of fibrinogen and DR-70 are significantly elevated in the serum of pancreatic cancer patients. However, they do not seem to improve pancreatic cancer detection over CA19-9 alone.
Ward
Douglas G
DG
School of Cancer Sciences, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, UK.
Wei
Wenbin
W
Buckels
John
J
Taha
Ahmed M I
AM
Hegab
Bassem
B
Tariciotti
Laura
L
Salih
Rasha
R
Qi
Yi-Qun
YQ
Martin
Ashley
A
Johnson
Philip J
PJ
D000230:Adenocarcinoma / Q000097:blood / Q000175:diagnosis*; D000368:Aged; D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor / Q000097:blood*; D018395:CA-19-9 Antigen / Q000097:blood*; D004739:England; D004797:Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay; D005260:Female; D005338:Fibrin Fibrinogen Degradation Products / Q000032:analysis*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010190:Pancreatic Neoplasms / Q000097:blood / Q000175:diagnosis*; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D011446:Prospective Studies; D012372:ROC Curve; D019032:Spectrometry, Mass, Matrix-Assisted Laser Desorption-Ionization; D015854:Up-Regulation
D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor; D018395:CA-19-9 Antigen; D005338:Fibrin Fibrinogen Degradation Products