Experimental blood test may help diagnose pancreatic cancer earlier
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.
去年奪走知名男星派屈克史威茲（曾主演第六感生死戀）生命的胰臟癌，致死率約百分之五，是最具侵略性的腫瘤之一。發現時通常已經擴散至身體其他部分，使病人只剩下幾個月生命。
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.
一項血液檢驗或許可幫助醫師更早發現胰臟癌，至少是高危險族群的病患，例如有家族病史者。直到今天，只有百分之七的胰臟癌病患在適合開刀時被發現。
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.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2010-01-21-pancreas21_st_N.htm
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