Distinguishing early-stage pancreatic cancer patients from disease-free individuals using serum profiling

This study evaluated the usefulness of electrospray mass spectrometry to distinguish sera of early-stage pancreatic cancer patients from disease-free individuals. Sera peak data were generated from 33 pancreatic cancer patients and 30 disease-free individuals. A "leave one out" cross-validation procedure discriminated stage I/II pancreatic cancer versus disease-free sera with a p value <.001 and a receiver-operator characteristic curve area value of 0.85. Predictive values for cancer stage I/II test efficiency, specificity, and sensitivity were 78%, 77%, and 79%, respectively. These studies indicate that electrospray mass spectrometry is useful for distinguishing sera of early-stage pancreatic cancer patients from disease-free individuals.