Abstract
We analyzed 71 cases of pancreatic cancer discovered in those who had undergone a ultrasonographic (US) screening and studied the possibility of discovering life-savable pancreatic cancer. It was difficult to discover life-savable pancreatic cancer by the once- a-year US screening alone. We studied whether or not various biochemical examination are effective for screening. Urine amylase·CEA·CA 19-9 were unsuitable for screening because prognosis of the group of cases showing high levels of these compounds was poor. Fasting blood sugar and serum amylase also showed a poor screening efficiency. Prognosis of the group showing high elastase 1 levels was better than the normal level group. With its cut off value set at 300ng/dl, elastase 1 could cover most of the TS1 cases, stage 1-2 cases and cases with the survival time of 3 years or more. To conduct an elastase 1 examination for the age group in which pancreatic cancer develops by preference and a close examination for the cases showing more than 300ng/dl is considered an efficient method for discovering life-savable pancreatic cancer.
