Revolutionary: Balkan scientist develops test for early detection of pancreatic cancer symptoms

Pancreatic cancer is one of the most aggressive cancers, the symptoms of which are usually detected when it's too late.

Statistics show that by the time of diagnosis, the cancer had usually spread and metastasized. Only 5 percent of patients with this type of cancer survive for another five years after being diagnosed.

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Researchers at the Queen Mary University of London are on the threshold of a groundbreaking discovery. It concerns a completely new urine test that can detect the first symptoms of this deadly disease as early as five years before it develops.

Photo: Pixabay

Scientists hope this will reduce the mortality rate among pancreatic cancer patients, a disease that in 60 percent of cases is discovered when the patient can no longer be saved. Test results that are accurate up to 90 percent are done in just 24 hours.

Queen Mary University Professor Tatjana Crnogorac-Jurcevic, who participated in the creation of this groundbreaking test, says that this project has been in the works for more than a decade:

"Pancreatic cancer develops in the body of the patient probably for about ten years before there are conditions to diagnose it," said the professor, originally from Osijek, who has lived and worked in London for many years.

The urine test measures three proteins - LYVE1, TFF1 and REG1B - that appear in a human body due to the presence of pancreatic cancer.

There are two types of cells in the pancreas: exocrine pancreatic cells that produce enzymes that help digest food in the small intestine, and neuroendocrine pancreatic cells that produce several hormones, including insulin and glucagon, that regulate blood sugar levels.

The most common pancreatic cancer develops from glands with exocrine secretion and is called adenocarcinoma. The endocrine secretion gland most commonly develops the neuroendocrine type of cancer.

(Telegraf.rs)