Aims of the study: Considerable progress has been made in imaging techniques over the past few years, yet this has not resulted in the ability to reach an earlier diagnosis of exocrine pancreatic cancer. The search for a noninvasive diagnostic tool capable of early diagnosis has led to the development of a series of serum tumor markers. This article discusses the clinical evaluation of SPan-1 and its comparison with established markers such as CA 19.9, CEA, TPA and CA 242.
Methods: The markers were measured in preoperative serum samples collected from 46 patients who had undergone surgery for ductal carcinoma of the pancreas, 20 patients with chronic pancreatitis, and 23 patients with other digestive neoplasms.
Results: The sensitivity, specificity and diagnostic accuracy for pancreatic cancer were as follows: [table: see text]
Conclusions: The antigenic determinant SPan-1, recognized by monoclonal antibodies, is elevated in sera of patients with exocrine pancreatic cancer. SPan-1 may be considered as an additional useful and reliable serum marker for the detection of this neoplasm, but it does not significantly improve the diagnostic accuracy obtained with CA 19.9.