Detection of the pancreas-specific gene in the peripheral blood of patients with pancreatic carcinoma

The prognosis of patients with pancreatic carcinoma remains very poor, To i mprove the therapeutic results, the early detection of this cancer is neede d. The present study was performed to detect the pancreas-specific gene, ch ymotrypsinogen, in the peripheral blood from patients with pancreatic carci noma by using reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) in o rder to evaluate the clinical significance of this gene. Ten patients with pancreatic carcinoma, two with acute pancreatitis, three with chronic pancr eatitis and ten control subjects were examined for the presence of chymotry psinogen using RT-PCR techniques in the peripheral blood. To confirm that t he chymotrypsinogen gene was expressed in a pancreas-specific manner, the e xpression of chymotrypsinogen in various types of human adult tissue was ev aluated by RT-PCR. The specific band of the chymotrypsinogen gene was detec ted in the pancreas. Serial dilution studies demonstrated the chymotrypsino gen gene to be detected at a concentration of one pancreatic cell per 10(6) peripheral blood cells. Seven out of the ten (70%) patients with pancreati c carcinoma were found to be positive based on the RT-PCR findings. In cont rast, no pancreas-specific gene was detected in the peripheral blood of any patients with acute pancreatitis, chronic pancreatitis or the control subj ects. Our observations show that the detection of the pancreatic specific g ene, chymotrypsinogen, is therefore useful as a genetic diagnostic marker i n pancreatic carcinoma. (C) 1999 Cancer Research Campaign.