Clinical Trial Starts to Detect Small Pancreatic Cancer

Tokyo, June 11 (Jiji Press)--A Japanese research team said Tuesday that it has started a clinical trial of a diagnostic imaging method for the early detection of pancreatic cancer smaller than 1 centimeter.
 

The team, including researchers from Japan's National Cancer Center, has succeeded in detecting cancerous tumors measuring about 3 millimeters in animal experiments. If the new method is put into practical use, it is expected to allow patients to live longer.
 

Currently, fluorodeoxyglucose, or FDG, is used to detect cancer through positron emission tomography. However, this method has low sensitivity for pancreatic cancers smaller than 1 centimeter.
 

The team has developed a new medical agent that binds to a protein on the surface of cancer cells, and with the new agent it has succeeded in detecting cancer cells as small as 3 millimeters in a mouse with transplanted human pancreatic cancer cells.
 

The clinical trial will be conducted through September 2025, covering pancreatic cancer patients with no metastases who are between the ages of 18 and 80.
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