Hope for Early Detection of Pancreatic Cancer

By Kate McHugh, Ivanhoe Health Correspondent

ORLANDO, Fla. (Ivanhoe Newswire) -- Known as a silent killer, pancreatic cancer spreads rapidly and is seldom caught in its early stages. But a new way to test for the disease could bring hope for early detection -- and survival.

More than 30,000 people in the United States die from pancreatic cancer each year. The disease kills 95 percent of its victims within five years -- most within the first two years. But if detected early -- when the tumor can be successfully removed -- the survival rates are 100 percent for a precancerous lesion and 50 percent for stage one cancer. However, there are currently no methods of early detection.

Doctors at Northwestern University in Chicago, Ill., tested a new method of early detection and found promising results. By testing a patient's duodenum tissue in a minimally invasive, painless biopsy procedure, researchers were able to detect irregular cancer cells by shining a fiber-optic probe on the tissue. The test identified with 100-percent accuracy each person who had a cancerous tumor in the pancreas.

Vadim Backman, Ph.D., professor of biomedical engineering at the McCormic School of Engineering and Applied Science and lead author of the study, says these results are "very encouraging," particularly for high risk patients. "People with family history … lived their whole life thinking, 'This is going to happen to me. When is this going to happen to me?' And the answer is so sad. You don't really have chronic symptoms for years. You are diagnosed and you may be dead within a couple of months," Dr. Backman told Ivanhoe.

Dr. Backman cautions it will be several years before this test is available in your doctor's office, but it could be a revolutionary, life-saving test for thousands of patients once it's widely available. Similar technology -- testing surrounding organs for precancerous cell growth -- is already being tested for lung and colon cancer screening.

This article was reported by Ivanhoe.com, which offers Medical Alerts by e-mail every day of the week. To subscribe, click on: http://www.ivanhoe.com/newsalert/.

SOURCE: Ivanhoe interview with Vadim Backman, Ph.D.; Clinical Cancer Research, 2007;13:4392-4399

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