Non-Invasive Biomarkers: Key to Better Pancreatic Cancer Outcomes

Ajay Goel, PhD, AGAF, professor and chair of the Department of Molecular Diagnostics and Experimental Therapeutics at City of Hope, discusses how, given the limitations of current screening methods for pancreatic cancer, the development and validation of novel non-invasive biomarkers can improve early detection and ultimately impact patient outcomes for patients.

Goel presented on the topic of noninvasive biomarkers for the early detection of pancreatic cancer during the 2025 ASCO Gastrointestinal (GI) Cancers Symposium.

In this video, Goel emphasizes the critical need for highly sensitive and specific diagnostic tests for pancreatic cancer. He explains that low sensitivity can lead to missed diagnoses, while low specificity can result in unnecessary surgeries. Pancreatic cancer surgery is complex and carries significant risks, including the potential for metabolic complications.

Further, he highlights that achieving a sensitivity and specificity of 95% or higher is crucial to ensure accurate diagnoses before proceeding with treatment, whether it involves surgery or other therapeutic options.

Transcription:

0:09 | The disease is not very common and the test has to have a very high degree of sensitivity and specificity. The reason being, if the test is not very sensitive, we are going to miss the disease. Somebody may have it, but if the test is not very specific, pancreas cancer surgery is very, very complex, so we cannot put people through pancreatic surgery to remove their pancreas, because these people could potentially have other metabolic disorders once they lose their pancreas.

0:39 | The biggest barrier is to have very high degree, more than probably 95% sensitivity, and probably almost equally high, 95% or above specificity to be sure that the person we are going to treat, whether surgically or with some other alternatives, be sure that this person has pancreas cancer before we put them on an operating table.