Developing a biomarker to aid the diagnosis of early pancreatic cancer
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Feasibility study to identify the potential role of Raman spectroscopy and ELISA analysis in identifying biomarkers to reliably detect early pancreatic cancer
IRAS ID
252525
Contact name
Bilal Al-Sarireh
Contact email
Duration of Study in the UK
0 years, 11 months, 31 days
Research summary
Pancreatic cancer has a very poor prognosis with just 15-20% of patients being suitable to undergo potentially curative surgery at the time of diagnosis due to the often insidious nature of the disease. At present, major surgery offers the only chance of cure for patients with pancreatic cancer. There is often a lack of symptoms in the early stages of the disease, meaning that 50% of patients already have signs of cancer spread (metastasis) at the time of diagnosis, meaning that surgery is not an option and the disease is incurable.
It therefore stands to reason that the key to improve survival rates for pancreatic cancer is to try to detect the disease at an earlier stage, when it is much more likely to be amenable to curative surgery. To date, no specific screening test has been developed to allow diagnosis of pancreatic cancer in an asymptomatic population when the disease is likely to be in the early stages. We hope to identify a suitable test by trying to identify chemicals produced by than cancer (biomarkers) which can be detected in a blood or urine test.REC name
Wales REC 7
REC reference
19/WA/0064
Date of REC Opinion
4 Mar 2019
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion