intestinal metaplasia and gastric carcinomas Tim Conze1*, Ana Sofia Carvalho2*, Ulf Landegren1, Raquel Almeida2,3, Celso A. Reis2,3, Leonor David2,3 and Ola Söderberg 1 Department of Genetics and Pathology, University of Uppsala, Uppsala, Sweden 2 Institute of Molecular Pathology and Immunology of the University of Porto (IPATIMUP), Porto, Portugal 3 Medical Faculty of the University of Porto, ...

BACKGROUND The proteolysis-inducing factor (PIF) was identified as a tumour product in various gastrointestinal cancers. A previous study in pancreatic cancer patients suggested PIF expression as a tumour marker, which is not related to tumour size. We hypothesized that PIF could be a useful marker to exclude benign pancreatic tumors, as chronic pancreatitis with a pancreatic mass. METHODS Ur...

BACKGROUND The present study was undertaken to establish any correlation of elevated levels of CA19-9 with tumor stage or grade of urothelial carcinoma. MATERIALS AND METHODS This hospital based study was carried out in the Department of Biochemistry of Nepalese Army Institute of Health Sciences between 1st July 2012 and 31st December 2012. Approval for the study was obtained from the institu...

BACKGROUND Carbohydrate antigen 19-9 (CA19-9) is a widely used biomarker in pancreatic cancer. There is no consensus on the interpretation of the change in CA19-9 serum levels and its role in the clinical management of patients with pancreatic cancer. METHODS Individual patient data from 6 prospective trials evaluating gemcitabine-containing regimens from 3 different institutions were pooled....

The validation of candidate biomarkers often is hampered by the lack of a reliable means of assessing and comparing performance. We present here a reference set of serum and plasma samples to facilitate the validation of biomarkers for resectable pancreatic cancer. The reference set includes a large cohort of stage I-II pancreatic cancer patients, recruited from 5 different institutions, and re...

Aim: Previous studies have examined levels of CEA and CA 19-9 in esophageal cancer patients, but have not determined a significant relationship between CEA and CA 19-9 levels and liver metastasis and pancreatic invasion in patients with esophageal cancer. In this study, we compared the serum levels of CEA and CA 19-9 in patients with esophageal cancer with and without liver and pancreatic metas...

Imaging techniques, cytology, and biochemical analysis [including carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) and carbohydrate antigen 19-9 (CA 19-9) concentrations] of pancreatic cyst fluid obtained by endoscopic ultrasound-guided fineneedle aspiration are used to differentiate pancreatic cyst lesions, particularly those with malignant potential (1, 2 ). American College of Gastroenterology guidelines have...

Carbohydrate antigen 19-9 (CA 19-9) is a widely-used tumor marker in patients with pancreatic cancer. However, some patients with respiratory disease also exhibit elevated serum CA 19-9 levels. We report a case of normalization of elevated serum CA 19-9 levels after treatment of the nodular bronchiectatic form of Mycobacterium ab scessus lung disease. A 40-year-old man visited our hospital beca...

Given the overall poor prognosis of patients with pancreatic cancer, there has always been an interest in early screening and primary prevention. An abstract presented in ASCO 2014 by Orlowski et al. introduced the potential use of an elevated serum procarboxypeptidase A (PCPA) and high ratios of PCPA to free carboxypeptidase A (FCPA) in enhancing the diagnostic efficacy of pancreatic cancer ei...

In the present case study, an immunomodulatory regimen for cancer prevention is reported. A patient with an abnormally high level of the tumor markers, carbohydrate antigen-724 (CA724), CA19-9 and carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA), although without any detectable tumor, was treated with an immunomodulatory therapy featuring an infusion of cytokine-induced autologous killer cells (CIKs) at the requ...