Purpose: No biomarker is available for pancreatic cancer early detection, but a small prospective European study involving 16 cases and 32 controls raised the possibility that anti-Ezrin autoantibodies may be associated with risk of pancreatic cancer. We aimed to validate this finding in a case-control study nested within a prospective study in the USA.
Methods: Levels of anti-Ezrin autoantibodies were examined using ELISA in pre-diagnostic plasma samples of 73 cases and 145 matched controls. Paired t test and paired signed rank tests were used to determine the difference between two groups, and conditional logistic regression was used to evaluate the association between anti-Ezrin autoantibody levels and risk of developing pancreatic cancer.
Results: No association was found between levels of anti-Ezrin plasma autoantibodies and subsequent risk of developing pancreatic cancer.
Conclusion: Anti-Ezrin autoantibodies did not appear to be useful as a plasma biomarker for early detection of pancreatic cancer.
Keywords: Autoantibodies; Ezrin; Pancreatic cancer risk; Prospective study.