title: Detection of pancreatic adenocarcinoma using circulating fragments of fibrinogen.
abstract: 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.
authors.affiliation: School of Cancer Sciences, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, UK.
authors.forename: Douglas G
authors.initials: DG
authors.lastname: Ward
authors.forename: Wenbin
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Wei
authors.forename: John
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Buckels
authors.forename: Ahmed M I
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Taha
authors.forename: Bassem
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Hegab
authors.forename: Laura
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Tariciotti
authors.forename: Rasha
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Salih
authors.forename: Yi-Qun
authors.initials: YQ
authors.lastname: Qi
authors.forename: Ashley
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Martin
authors.forename: Philip J
authors.initials: PJ
authors.lastname: Johnson
mesh_terms: 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
chemical_list: D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor; D018395:CA-19-9 Antigen; D005338:Fibrin Fibrinogen Degradation Products