Scientists are Working to Identify a Screening Test to Detect Pancreatic Cancer

To spot breast cancer early, there are mammograms. To find colon cancer early, there are colonoscopies. But there is no standard test to detect early cases of pancreatic cancer, before cancer cells have spread and when surgery is more likely to be helpful. Pancreatic cancer is the third leading cause of cancer deaths and finding it early could help increase a patient’s chances of survival.

Although there currently is no single recommended blood test to find early pancreatic cancers, “there is a large scientific community working to try to change this and to identify a screening test that we can use in the clinic, but it’s quite hard,” said Dr. Brian Wolpin, director of the Gastrointestinal Cancer Center at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. Read the full article from CNN here.