Researchers at Kanazawa University said on July 16 that blood-based gene expression tests may enable early screening for pancreatic cancer and improve long-term survival. Pancreatic cancer is considered one of the most malignant cancers, with a five-year relative survival rate of only 8.5% in Japan. Early detection is critical, as curative treatment is possible only when the disease is found at an early stage and surgical resection can be performed. However, only 2–3% of all diagnosed cases are detected at an early stage due to the difficulty in identifying the disease before it advances.
A research group led by Dr. Yamashita, Dean of the Graduate School of Advanced Preventive Medical Sciences and Professor of Gastroenterology at Kanazawa University, has developed a diagnostic test called "Panregza" that combines gene expression patterns from peripheral whole blood with the serum tumor marker CA19-9. While Panregza's effectiveness was previously demonstrated mainly in advanced cases, its usefulness for detecting early-stage disease had not been clarified until now.
Yamashita and colleagues analyzed samples from 10 patients with stage 0–Ⅰ pancreatic cancer and compared them to those from 104 healthy individuals using three diagnostic approaches: peripheral whole blood gene expression patterns (mRNA), tumor marker CA19-9, and their combined test (Panregza). The gene expression approach detected nine out of ten cases (90%) of early-stage pancreatic cancer, while CA19-9 alone detected just one case (10%). The combined Panregza test showed a sensitivity of 60% and specificity of 93.3%. Researchers said these findings indicate that gene expression analysis from peripheral whole blood could be a highly effective method for detecting early-stage pancreatic cancer.
At the Innovative Research and Development Center for Pancreatic Cancer at Kanazawa University Hospital, five-year survival rates reach 100% for Stage 0 and 74.4% for Stage I pancreatic cancer patients. This underscores the importance of diagnosing the disease as soon as possible.
Researchers have previously observed that gene expression patterns in peripheral blood mononuclear cells differ between patients with pancreatic cancer and healthy individuals—a finding that led to development of Panregza by Cubix Inc., which uses both whole blood analysis and CA19-9 testing. Most PBMCs are immune cells thought to undergo changes influenced by nearby tumors; however, whether such changes occur even in minimal tumor burden was unclear until this study showed abnormalities present even when CA19-9 levels were normal.
The Innovative Research and Development Center for Pancreatic Cancer was established in April 2025 under Professor Shintaro Yagi to advance diagnostic tools like these through collaboration among specialists across multiple departments.
