Sky Foundation, Inc. is providing financial support to researchers
who are working to find a test that detects pancreatic cancer in its
earliest stages. It is hard to find pancreatic cancer early. This is
the main reason that people with this cancer often have a poor
prognosis. More than 44,030 people will be diagnosed with pancreatic
cancer this year. 37,660 of them will die of the disease. By the time a
person has symptoms, the cancer is usually large and has spread to
other organs. Because the pancreas is deep inside the body, doctors
cannot see or feel the tumors during a routine physical exam.
Currently, there is no test that can easily detect this type of cancer
before a person has noticed symptoms. According to the National Cancer
Institute, overall pancreatic cancer incidence and mortality rates have
changed very little in the past three decades.
Michael Tainsky, Ph.D. the Barbara and Fred Erb
Endowed Professor of Cancer Genetics and Professor of Pathology,
Barbara Ann Karmanos Cancer Institute and Wayne State University,
Detroit is working to find a test that will detect pancreatic cancer in
earlier stages. Researchers are working on an advanced screening
technology for pancreatic cancer that would provide a five-fold
improvement in survival rates.
According to Dr. Tainsky, his blood screening technology
will look for certain antibodies in a patient's serum because research
indicates that cancers are viewed by the immune system as foreign
entities.
Cancers present proteins that the body's immune system recognizes as
foreign, the same way it recognizes an invading virus. These antibodies,
while they tolerate the cancer, can be used as a 'bio-sensor.'
The screening test, then, involves profiling the serum in cancer
patients and examining the antibodies.
"Some traditional single antibody biomarker tests only
identify as few as 10% of patients having cancer because cancer
patients have such different biological reactions," said Dr. Tainsky.
But with his screening test, which has more biomarkers and improved
sensitivity, false-negative results are significantly reduced and
cancer patients can be diagnosed much more accurately.
Over the course of the study, Dr. Tainsky and his team hope to identify
10-20 'ultra-reliable' markers and refine the screening test, with the
goal of eventually seeing a pancreatic cancer screening test
commonplace in clinical settings.
Steven P. Dudas Ph.D. is the project leader for
the research program to identify circulating biomarkers for pancreatic
cancer at Karmanos Cancer Institute. Dr. Dudas, a Research Associate in
the Program in Molecular Biology and Genetics, joined the research team
of Dr. Tainsky in 2006. His primary research interests have focused on
the development of an early detection assay for the diagnosis of
gastrointestinal cancers, in particular colon cancer. Dr. Dudas
received his doctorial degree from the Department of Biological
Sciences at Wayne State University in 1993. His post-doctorial studies
were at the University of Michigan in the Department of Biological
Chemistry. Prior to joining Karmanos Cancer Institute, Dr. Dudas spent
11 years at Henry Ford Health System conducting research in the
Division of Gastroenterology.
Ann Silverman, MD FACG
Dr. Silverman is a Gastroenterologist and Director of Research at War Memorial Hospital in Sault Ste. Marie. She was director of GI research at Henry Ford Health System in Detroit, MI. Dr. Silverman attended medical school at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in Bronx , NY . She completed her post-graduate training in Internal Medicine at Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Boston and completed a gastroenterology fellowship at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Maryland. Dr. Silverman has published a number of articles relating to digestive diseases and to studies of the hepatitis B and hepatitis C virus. She is a member of American Gastroenterologic Association, American Association for Cancer Research, American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases, and Fellow of the American College of Gastroenterology.
M. Margaret French RN, BScN, CCRP
Margaret received her
BScN from the University of Windsor and is the manager of clinical research at Henry Ford Health System in Detroit, MI. Margaret's specialty is Oncology Research, and she has been at Henry Ford since 2004.
Osama Habib Alaradi, MD
Gastroenterologist
Senior Staff Position
Henry Ford Health System
Robert Luis Pompa, MD
Gastroenterologist
Senior Staff Position
Henry Ford Health System
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