January 21, 2010(USA TODAY) -- Pancreatic cancer, which claimed the life of actor Patrick Swayze last year, is one of the most aggressive of all tumors, killing all but about 5% of patients. By the time the disease is found, it usually has spread around the body and left many patients with only a few months to live.
An experimental blood test might one day help doctors find more of these cancers early, at least in high-risk patients, such as those with a family history of the disease, according to a small study presented Wednesday in Orlando at the Gastrointestinal Cancers Symposium. Today, only 7% of pancreatic cancers are found in time to operate.
The test, which measures a protein made by pancreatic tumors called PAM-4, detected 62% of early tumors and 90% of more advanced cancers, shows the study of 68 patients who had surgery for pancreatic cancer and 19 healthy volunteers. The test produced false alarms -- mistakenly indicating cancer in a healthy person -- about 5% of the time.
The test "is a long way from being useful" because it misses too many early tumors, says James Abbruzzese, a pancreatic cancer expert at Houston's M.D. Anderson Cancer Center. Doctors need to study it in larger trials with many healthy people, including patients with benign pancreatic inflammations or other conditions that might trigger false alarms, says Teri Brentnall, professor at the University of Washington.
The study's lead author, David Gold of the Garden State Cancer Center in New Jersey, notes that early detection of pancreatic cancer isn't always enough. Only 20% of patients with early tumors survive.
Copyright 2010 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co. Inc.
