“Early Detection of Pancreatic Cancer: Scientists Enlist 400 High-Risk Patients to Test Revolutionary Pancreatic Juice Test for Tumor Cells, Potentially Saving Thousands of Lives annually from Poor Nutrition and Alcohol Consumption”

2023-05-03 13:46:38

The scientists receive help from approximately 400 people with a strongly increased risk of pancreatic cancer. They have been closely monitored at the Erasmus MC Cancer Institute since 2006 because they are relatives of patients who have died of pancreatic cancer. About 3000 people get pancreatic cancer every year. That number is rising, partly due to poor nutrition and alcohol consumption.

Differences

These 400 people receive an annual endoscopy to see what the pancreas looks like with ultrasound. “But if abnormalities can be seen on the pancreas, you are already too late,” says lead researcher Prof. Maikel Peppelenbosch, head of the Stomach, Bowel and Liver laboratory. “We are therefore going to see whether we can find cells in the juice of the pancreas that give a reliable signal at a very early stage that a tumor has developed.”

Here’s the thing: the pancreas produces – just like the stomach and the liver – juices that are necessary for digestion. “The enzymes in that juice flow past the tumor and loosen tumor cells. You can then detect those tumor cells in the pancreatic juice,” Peppelenbosch explains.

special hormone

In previous small studies, his lab has already tested the method on the pancreatic juice of the aforementioned 400 family members of cancer patients. “Just before the endoscopy, we give these people an injection of the hormone secretin, which is the hormone that makes the pancreas produce its juice. During the endoscopy, we collect the juice for research in the lab.”

The researchers believe that this detection method works well, but they want to prove this with the new study. “You can subject the juice to molecular diagnostics, but we think that there are also other markers in the juice that indicate a tumour. The lab research into these markers is much cheaper than molecular diagnostics, but of course we have to be sure that this method is just so good,” says Peppelenbosch.

Cyst

He thinks pancreatic juice testing could also be a good way to monitor people with pancreatic cysts. “Those cysts come to light, for example, when people have a full body scan done. A cyst usually does no harm, only in 2 percent of people it grows into cancer. An operation to remove the cyst is not done quickly. It is not without risk: it is a serious procedure that kills 2 percent of patients.”

Opportunities to work cheaper

Peppelenbosch works together with his colleagues Djuna Cahen, Gwenny Fuhler and Marco Bruno and with Inge Driesprong – de Kok and Iris Lansdorp-Vogelaar from the Department of Public Health (MGZ). MGZ will conduct research into the cost-effectiveness of the various methods to identify markers in the pancreatic juice. “Health insurers also only want to reimburse preventive examination if it is cost-effective.”

Early detection of pancreatic cancer is important. Of the people who get it, only 6 percent are still alive after 5 years. The tumor usually arises in the ‘tail’ of the pancreas. If the tumor is detected early, it can be removed with surgery.

By: National Care Guide