VEGF生物标记物可用于胰腺癌早期诊断治疗

幸福侠侣

胰腺癌是致死率最高的癌症类型之一。目前关于胰腺癌的治疗思路主要有两种，一种是开发更加有效的治疗方法另一种是加强胰腺癌早期检测结果的准确率。现在来自美国克利夫兰医学研究中心的研究人员发现了一种有望作为胰腺癌早期检测生物标记物的分子。研究人员发现胰腺癌患者的胆汁中VEGF水平明显提高。这种在胆汁内发现的血管内皮生长因子（VEGF）生物标记物检测胰腺癌的准确率达到了93%。研究人员认为这一发现有助于开发新的胰腺癌诊断方法以增加胰腺癌早期确诊的准确率。

详细英文报道：

While some investigators are seeking better ways to treat pancreatic cancer, others have been tracking biomarkers that can offer a more accurate way to identify the lethal disease earlier on, so patients can be treated while there's a greater chance of fighting the disease.

At the Cleveland Clinic, that effort led to the discovery of a biomarker in bile known as vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) that can be used to detect pancreatic cancer in 93% of cases.

Investigators at the Cleveland Clinic found that median bile VEGF levels were raised significantly in patients with pancreatic cancer, based on their study involving 53 patients undergoing endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography, or ERCP. Fifteen of those patients had pancreatic cancer, 18 had primary sclerosing cholangitis, 9 had cholanciocarcinoma (cancer of the bile duct), and 11 had benign conditions of the pancreas and bile duct.

"A VEGF cut of value of 0.5 ng/mL distinguished pancreatic cancer from cholangiocarcinoma and this measure is both 93 percent sensitive and 89 percent specific," reported Dr. Udayakumar Navaneethan of the Cleveland Clinic Foundation. The team confirmed the diagnostic accuracy of biliary VEGF in a second cohort and then further confirmed it in a resected pancreatic cancer case with elevated VEGF in bile.

"In patients with indeterminate biliary strictures, we feel that measurements of markers in bile can help identify pancreatic malignancy and plan for earlier treatment," says Navaneethan. "Also in patients where tissue diagnosis cannot be obtained in spite of multiple biopsies, measurement of markers in bile fluid to improve our diagnostic ability would be of immense interest."