A TEST TO SCREEN FOR PANCREATIC CANCER

For people with the unenviable family history of cancer of the pancreas, this article is good news. Researchers at the University of Texas, Southwestern Branch in Dallas, have discovered a blood test to detect early stage pancreatic cancer. That’s great news for those at high risk of pancreatic CA because the disease is most often diagnosed late, at stage III or IV, when treatment is virtually ineffective. 

The test is called PancreaSure, and it is highly sensitive for detecting evidence of cancer of the ducts of the pancreas. Specifically, it is highly reliable for finding patients with early stage (I or II) adenocarcinoma of the pancreatic duct—the tube through which pancreatic digestive enzymes make their way to the small intestine. 

Prior to this discovery, doctors relied on the CA19-9 test which was notoriously unreliable. PancreaSure has far outperformed CA19-9 in patients with known Stage I or II disease and especially in those patients with a family history of pancreatic CA, pancreatic cysts, or a “pathogenic genetic variant.” 

PancreaSure demonstrated 78% sensitivity for detecting early stage pancreatic cancer and of those 78%, 92% were specifically diagnosed early-stage pancreatic CA. In those patients who tested positive for genetic variants, specificity was 94%. CA19-9 was only accurate 66% of the time. 

BOTTOM LINE: This sounds like a good test. Being diagnosed with Pancreatic cancer is prognostically always very negative because it is always diagnosed in a late stage. This is a “high-performing” test that will aid in the detection of early-stage pancreatic ductal CA, and appears to be an “important step toward improving early-stage diagnostic success.” Folks with “high-risk profiles” should have a PancreaSure test as soon as it is available to them.

References: Talwadekar M. New Blood Test Shows Promise in PancreaticCancer Detection.

medscape.com 2025 October 29.

Lucas AL, et al. Validation of a Serum-Based Biomarker Signature for Detection of Early-Stage Pancreatic Ductal Adenocarcinoma Gastroenterology 2025 Oct 27.