Letter to the Editor
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2021. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastroenterol. Dec 7, 2021; 27(45): 7862-7865
Published online Dec 7, 2021. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v27.i45.7862
Diagnostic biomarkers for pancreatic cancer: An update
Ming Yang, Chun-Ye Zhang
Ming Yang, Department of Surgery, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO 65212, United States
Chun-Ye Zhang, Department of Veterinary Pathobiology, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO 65212, United States
Author contributions: Yang M and Zhang CY collected data, wrote, finalized the letter, and contributed equally.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare no conflicts of interest.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Ming Yang, DVM, PhD, Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Surgery, University of Missouri, One Hospital Dr., Medical Science Building, Room M272, Columbia, MO 65212, United States. yangmin@health.missouri.edu
Received: July 20, 2021
Peer-review started: July 20, 2021
First decision: August 6, 2021
Revised: August 10, 2021
Accepted: November 24, 2021
Article in press: November 24, 2021
Published online: December 7, 2021
Processing time: 135 Days and 10.3 Hours
Core Tip

Core Tip: The development of ideal diagnostic biomarkers for pancreatic cancer (PC) is critically important for early diagnosis, large-scale screening, monitoring of therapeutic response, prediction of risk, and prognosis. So far, the only approved serum marker for PC diagnosis is carbohydrate antigen 19-9 (CA 19-9) in the United States; although, many potential biomarkers have been investigated. However, CA 19-9 has low sensitivity; hence, new solutions are needed. Herein, we summarize some of the ongoing clinical trials that aim to investigate the application of biomarkers in PC diagnosis.