OHSU Scientists Develop PAC-MANN Test for Early Detection of Pancreatic Cancer

According to a Feb. 12 article from Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU), a new type of blood test could potentially assist physicians with detecting pancreatic cancer earlier. OHSU researchers have developed a test called PAC-MANN, the abbreviation for “protease activity-based assay using a magnetic nanosensor.”

The test, according to the article, uses a small blood sample to identify changes in protease activity, an indicator of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) the most common and deadly kind of pancreatic cancer.

The article said, “Pancreatic cancer is often diagnosed at an advanced stage, when treatment options are limited. Current tests, such as carbohydrate antigen 19-9, or CA 19-9, are good at indicating prognosis, but aren’t sensitive enough for early-stage detection. The new PAC-MANN test fills this gap by identifying signs of cancer-related activity in the blood, helping catch cancers earlier.

‘The problem with pancreatic cancer is that we often catch it too late,’ said Jared Fischer, Ph.D., a scientist with the OHSU Knight Cancer Institute’s Cancer Early Detection Advanced Research Center, or CEDAR.’”

The goal, according to Fisher, is to giving doctors a tool that can detect the disease earlier. Fisher is an assistant professor of molecular and medical genetics in the OHSU School of Medicine and the corresponding author of the study published in Science Translational Medicine.

The article added, “The researchers created a non-invasive test using blood samples from 350 patients from OHSU’s Brenden-Colson Center for Pancreatic Care and CEDAR; they either had pancreatic cancer, were at high risk for cancer or were controls. The research team looked for certain proteins, specifically proteases, in the blood that become more active in people with PDAC. By identifying these proteins, they developed a test that could specifically detect pancreatic cancer. The PAC-MANN test was able to correctly distinguish patients with pancreatic cancer from healthy patients and those with non-cancerous pancreatic issues 98% of the time. It also helped spot early-stage cancer with 85% accuracy when used along with the CA 19-9 test.”

Additionally, findings showed that PAC-MANN can track how well treatments were working.