New Blood Test Shows Promise for Early Pancreatic Cancer Detection: Live Timeline (Feb 2026)

A Penn Medicine study reveals that a blood biomarker panel incorporating four proteins enhances pancreatic cancer detection compared to measuring CA19-9 levels alone. This four-protein panel demonstrated improved accuracy in distinguishing pancreatic cancer from healthy individuals.

The 'Avantect Pancreatic Cancer Test', a new blood test for early detection, has been launched and is now privately available in Australia, offering another option for individuals at higher risk.

The story gained wider media attention, with reports emphasizing the potential for improved diagnostic accuracy compared to current methods for early pancreatic cancer detection.

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) issued a news release, highlighting the promising new blood test and its potential to improve survival rates for pancreatic cancer.

The research paper, detailing the new blood test for early pancreatic cancer detection, was officially published in Clinical Cancer Research.

The new blood test for pancreatic cancer has been named 'PancreaSure' and was developed by Immunovia with input from Penn Medicine, reaching key validation milestones.

UCLA Health highlights a promising new blood test that analyzes microRNAs, small particles released from tumors, accurately detecting early-stage pancreatic cancer with 91% accuracy.

The research team finalized the study data and prepared a detailed manuscript for submission to a leading scientific journal.

Researchers are investigating the Avantect blood test in a new study called SAFE-D, focusing on early pancreatic cancer detection in individuals aged 50-84 recently diagnosed with type 2 diabetes.

The four-protein panel demonstrated significant diagnostic improvement, achieving an impressive 91.9% accuracy in detecting early-stage pancreatic cancer during validation tests.

Extensive validation studies commenced, utilizing diverse patient samples from institutions like the Mayo Clinic and the University of Pennsylvania to test the panel's performance.

Geneseeq Technology Inc. unveiled a new blood test utilizing cell-free DNA fragmentomics and AI, published in Nature Communications. Separately, Mainz Biomed NV reported significant progress with its multivariate RNA liquid biopsy test, achieving 100% sensitivity and 95% specificity in a feasibility study.

Researchers at Oregon Health & Science University have developed a new blood test named PAC-MANN that shows potential for earlier detection of pancreatic cancer. This test identifies changes in protease activity, a key indicator of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC). The PAC-MANN test has demonstrated 85% accuracy in detecting the cancer.

Development of a comprehensive four-protein panel, integrating ANPEP, PIGR, CA19-9, and THBS2, was undertaken to optimize detection accuracy.

Preliminary studies were conducted to evaluate ANPEP and PIGR, both individually and in combination with established markers like CA19-9 and THBS2.

Researchers identified ANPEP and PIGR as promising new blood markers, initiating focused investigation into their diagnostic potential for pancreatic cancer.

Initial research commenced at the Perelman School of Medicine to identify novel biomarkers for improving early detection methods for pancreatic cancer.