Researchers have developed an inexpensive blood test that they say can detect pancreatic cancer — even in its early stages.
Using a small blood sample, researchers from Oregon Health & Science University say they can detect changes in the enzyme that breaks down protein, protease. “Production of proteases is a hallmark of cancer progression and circulating protease activity may inform diagnosis of certain cancers,” researchers wrote in the journal, Science Translational Medicine.
The test is called PAC-MANN — an abbreviation for “protease activity-based assay using a magnetic nanosensor.”
“The problem with pancreatic cancer is that we often catch it too late. Our goal with PAC-MANN is to give clinicians a tool that can detect the disease much earlier, when more treatment options are available and there is a better chance of survival,” Dr. Jared Fischer, a scientist with the OHSU Knight Cancer Institute’s Cancer Early Detection Advanced Research Center (CEDAR) said in a release on the breakthrough.
Pancreatic cancer is one of the most devastating cancers because it usually doesn’t exhibit symptoms until it’s too far advanced for effective treatment. As Pancreatic Cancer Action Networkexplains, even when it’s discovered only in the pancreas, the five-year survival rate is 44%. For all types of pancreatic cancer, including if it has spread, the five-year survival rate is 13%.
The PAC-MANN test was able to differentiate — 98% of the time — between the blood of someone with pancreatic cancer and the blood of someone who doesn’t have the disease. When used alongside the existing CA 19-9 test, it was able to diagnose early-stage pancreatic cancer with 85% accuracy.
Stock image of a person getting blood drawn.
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Researchers pointed out that the test only uses a small amount of blood and takes under an hour, which keeps costs down.
“The big difference with this test is the cost: It takes only 8 microliters of blood and 45 minutes to run the test at a cost of less than a penny per sample,” lead author Dr. Jose L. Montoya Mira, a research engineer at OHSU’s CEDAR. said. “This could easily be used in rural and underserved settings, where traditional tests are not or cannot be used.”
He added that the test ”could be used for people at high risk of pancreatic cancer, which is not targeted by current tests” — helping detect it, and treat it, sooner.
As Fischer said, “Hopefully this is one step toward ending cancer as we know it.”
