A large international study published today in Nature Medicine says an investigational liquid biopsy called PANXEON can flag early pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma from a blood draw — a disease usually found only after it has spread, Medical Xpress reported, citing City of Hope researchers.
In a prospective multicenter study of 1,785 people with and without pancreatic cancer across four countries, a microRNA signature plus the established marker CA19-9 produced a composite score. Combined with CA19-9, the assay showed 86.8% sensitivity for stage I–II disease in the testing cohort, with false-positive rates of about 3.2% in low-risk controls and 15.6% in high-risk controls. The signature alone reached an AUROC of 88.6% and 83.8% sensitivity for early-stage disease, with little cross-reactivity to other gastrointestinal cancers.
PANXEON also detected high-grade dysplasia — often treated as “stage 0” — in about 64% of tested high-risk cyst cases, suggesting a possible way to triage which cysts need closer watch. Authors stress the test would complement imaging, not replace it, and that larger prospective trials are still required. The work is registered as ClinicalTrials.gov NCT06388967.
Sources: Medical Xpress; Nature Medicine
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