Oxygen Sensor Attached to Endoscope can Detect Pancreatic Cancer

Researchers at Mayo Clinic have found that attaching an optical blood oxygen sensor to an endoscope can detect pancreatic cancer.

Researchers at Mayo Clinic have found that attaching an optical blood oxygen sensor to an endoscope can detect pancreatic cancer through a simple endoscopic procedure.

The study, published in GIE: Gastrointestinal Endoscopy, shows that the device, which acts like the well-known clothespin-type finger clip used to measure blood oxygen in patients, has a sensitivity of 92 percent and a specificity of 86 percent.

Pancreatic Cancer - All About the Disease, its Diagnosis and Management
Pancreatic cancer often involves its exocrine part. It grows aggressively, and often detected late. Treatment options include surgery, radiation and chemotherapy.

MULTIMEDIA ALERT: Video and audio are available for download on the Mayo Clinic News Network.

That means, of 100 patients with pancreatic cancer, this sensor would detect 92 of them, based on the findings. And of 100 patients who don't have pancreatic cancer, the test would correctly identify them 86 percent of the time.

The device measures changes in blood flow in the tissues that are in the proximity to the pancreas, under the theory that tumors change the flow of blood flow in surrounding tissues because the tumors need oxygen to grow. The endoscope is passed into the stomach and the duodenum, where the measurements are taken. The pancreas lies just outside the duodenum.

New pancreatic surgery
People with disease of the pancreas can benefit from 'keyhole' surgery, according to a new study. Non-invasive - or 'keyhole' - surgery is increasing

"Although this is a small pilot study, the outcome is very promising. There is no test now available that can accurately identify pancreatic cancer at an early stage, short of removing some of the organ," says the study's senior investigator and gastroenterologist Michael Wallace, M.D., M.P.H. "We need new ways to detect pancreatic cancer effectively, and simply, as early as possible."

Now, more than 90 percent of pancreatic cancers are discovered at an advanced or metastatic stage with no effective therapy available. That explains why pancreatic cancer is the fourth most common cause of cancer deaths in the U.S., although it ranks 10th in occurrence.

Advertisements

Gene Therapy Destroys Pancreatic Cancer Cells
Pancreatic cancer is among the deadliest of cancers, affecting many people a year and having an extremely low survival rate. Pancreatic cancer is the

"We are now confirming our findings in a much larger study, involving institutions in the U.S. and in Europe," Dr. Wallace says.

The technique is a very different way of looking at cancer detection, he says. "What is quite unusual is that we were trying to sense changes that are not in the tumor itself but are in the nearby, normal-appearing tissues," he says. "It relies on a principle, now being increasingly acknowledged, called a cancer field effect. Instead of looking for the needle in the haystack, we now look at the haystack to see how it is different when there's a needle inside.