Blood protein may spot Pancreatic Cancer early

Researchers have discovered a protein that pancreatic tumors consistently shed into the blood, making a potentially significant advance toward a blood test that could catch the deadly cancer early.

Scientists have tried, without great success, to find markers, or indicators, for pancreatic cancer, proteins in the blood that consistently and specifically signal the presence of the disease.

The marker that Kalluri's team found appears to be better than any others studied so far, said Dr. Kenneth Yu, an oncologist who was not involved in the research.

"This is really impressive," said Yu, who treats and studies pancreatic cancer at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City. "You rarely see something with 100 percent sensitivity and specificity."

Yu was referring to the fact that all pancreatic tumors analyzed in the study, from almost 250 patients, secreted high amounts of the marker, a protein called GPC1. Just as important, the protein was not released at high levels from noncancerous cells.