Distinguishing Early-Stage Pancreatic Cancer Patients From Disease-Free Individuals Using Serum Profiling

Abstract

This study evaluated the usefulness of electrospray mass spectrometry to distinguish sera of early-stage pancreatic cancer patients from disease-free individuals. Sera peak data were generated from 33 pancreatic cancer patients and 30 disease-free individuals. A “leave one out” cross-validation procedure discriminated stage I/II pancreatic cancer versus disease-free sera with a p value <.001 and a receiver–operator characteristic curve area value of 0.85. Predictive values for cancer stage I/II test efficiency, specificity, and sensitivity were 78%, 77%, and 79%, respectively. These studies indicate that electrospray mass spectrometry is useful for distinguishing sera of early-stage pancreatic cancer patients from disease-free individuals.

Keywords: :

• Pancreatic cancer
• Early detection
• Serum profiling
• Electrospray mass spectrometry
• Predictive value analysis

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

This work was supported by grants HR03–043 and AR08–016 from the Oklahoma Center for the Advancement of Science & Technology.