Diagnosis of pancreatic cancer. Serological markers.

Many serological markers that are widely used for delecting pancreatic cancer are discussed. Some are good indicators, but others are not. Among them, CA19-9 and SPan-1 radioimmunoassays have a higher sensitivity and specificity. However, these markers are neither tumor-specific nor pancreatic cancer-specific. Accurate understanding of their measurement made it possible to diagnose pancreatic cancer, even when the cancer was small, and to monitor the patients after treatment.