A multianalyte panel consisting of extracellular vesicle miRNAs and mRNAs, cfDNA, and CA19-9 shows utility for diagnosis and staging of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma

University of Pennsylvania researchers analyzed plasma from 204 subjects (71 healthy, 44 non-PDAC pancreatic disease, and 89 PDAC) for the following biomarkers: tumor-associated extracellular vesicle miRNA and mRNA isolated on a nanomagnetic platform that they developed and measured by next-generation sequencing or qPCR, circulating cell-free DNA (ccfDNA) concentration measured by qPCR, ccfDNA KRAS G12D/V/R mutations detected by droplet digital PCR, and CA19-9 measured by electrochemiluminescence immunoassay. The researchers applied machine learning to training sets and subsequently evaluated model performance in independent, user-blinded test sets.

To identify patients with PDAC versus those without, the researchers generated a classification model using a training set of 47 subjects (20 PDAC and 27 noncancer). When applied to a blinded test set (N = 136), the model achieved an AUC of 0.95 and accuracy of 92%, superior to the best individual biomarker, CA19-9 (89%). They next used a cohort of 20 patients with PDAC to train our model for disease staging and applied it to a blinded test set of 25 patients clinically staged by imaging as metastasis-free, including 9 subsequently determined to have had occult metastasis. Their workflow achieved significantly higher accuracy for disease staging (84%) than imaging alone (accuracy = 64%; P < 0.05).

Algorithmically combining blood-based biomarkers may improve PDAC diagnostic accuracy and preoperative identification of nonmetastatic patients best suited for surgery, although larger validation studies are necessary.