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Multiplexed Assay of Serum Biomarkers for Pancreatic Cancer

Principal Investigator
Name
Anna Lokshin
Degrees
-
Institution
University of Pittsburgh
Position Title
-
Email
About this CDAS Project
Study
PLCO (Learn more about this study)
Project ID
2005-0008
Initial CDAS Request Approval
Aug 17, 2005
Title
Multiplexed Assay of Serum Biomarkers for Pancreatic Cancer
Summary
Pancreatic cancer is the fifth leading cause of cancer death in the United States.In the U.S., mortality rates from pancreatic cancer have not changed significantly over the past 50 years. This is due, in part, to the lack of early detection methods for this particularly aggressive form of cancer. Although the prognosis for pancreatic cancer is generally poor, it is well known that the survival rate for resected pancreatic cancer is much higher than that for more conservative treatment. Pancreatic cancer usually does not cause definitive symptoms until survival is severely compromised. Therefore, prevention and early detection represent our best hope to overcome this disease. Due to the low incidence of pancreatic cancer in general population, the required specificity of the test needs to be greater than 98%. None of the available screening tests for pancreatic cancer that have been identified to date is sufficiently predictive. CA19-9 has achieved the widest acceptance as a serodiagnostic test for pancreatic carcinoma in symptomatic patients. However, CA 19-9 has poor sensitivity and specificity for early-staged disease Our Preliminary Data indicate that a panel of biomarkers may have better diagnostic power for early detection of pancreatic cancer than each single marker. We, therefore, propose to examine multiple pancreatic cancer-associated markers in order to achieve required high specificity while maintaining high sensitivity of the assay. Such approach is possible due to the development of Luminex Multianalyte Profiling (LabMAP) technology that allows for simultaneous detection of up to 100 biomarkers in 25-50 ml of serum.
Aims

We hypothesize that a multi-marker panel would provide the requisite high sensitivity and specificity for early detection of pancreatic cancer, to be utilized for screening of target populations. Our immediate objective is to develop a reliable serum-based assay for early detection of pancreatic cancer based on the longitudinal patterns of multiple biomarkers. To achieve this objective, the following Specific Aims are proposed: 1. Expand the existing multiplexed multimarker assay to include all known pancreatic cancer-associated serum biomarkers. 2. Validate the optimized biomarker panels in an independent case/control test set of over 100 cases of pancreatic cancer, over 50 cases of chronic pancreaitis, and 300 general population controls. 3. Validate these panels in a retrospective longitudinal study (PLCO). Use 200 ml of sera from participants who subsequently developed pancreatic cancer and 200 ml sera from 5 matched controls who did not develop pancreatic cancer.

Collaborators

William Bigbee (University of Pittsburgh GSPH)
Brian Haab (Van Andel Research Institute)
Richard Hayes (NCI, DCEG)
Anna Lokshin (UMPC)
Randall Brand (Evanston Northwestern Healthcare)
Steve Skates (Massachusetts General Hospital)
Joel Weissfeld (University of Pittsburgh)
David Whitcomb (UMPC)
Herbert Zeh (UMPC)

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