April 26, 2010 — If pancreatic cancer is detected in its early stages, it can be treated very effectively with surgery, but currently, there are no effective methods of early detection. For this reason, pancreas cancer is very lethal. However, this can change with the new molecular marker, the protein palladin, identified by UNC researchers to detect pancreas cancer in its early developmental stages.
Their findings and further details from the study were published in the online journal, PLoS One, on April 26th. The research team comprised of Dr. Carol Otey and Dr. Hong Jin Kim, surgical oncology faculty, as the Senior co-authors, with several other co-authors, including Dr. Jen Jen Yeh and Brian Bennarski, surgical oncology faculty and PGY4 resident, respectively.