Catching pancreatic cancer early is among the most difficult challenges faced by medical providers, and that delay often ends in death. The NIH-supported researchers’ discovery of a new blood test, however, may be able to locate and diagnose people with pancreatic cancer sooner rather than later. This would allow for an increased opportunity for successful therapeutic intervention. PDAC is the most prevalent form of pancreatic cancer and one of the most lethal. Although one out of ten patients diagnosed with PDAC will live for five years or longer after a diagnosis, the overall percentage remains very low. (A) Flowchart of experimental design for discovery phase 1 and validation phase 2. (B and C) Jitter plots of biomarker concentrations in plasma samples from Healthy Controls, Disease Controls, PDAC Stage I/II, and PDAC Stages I-IV. (CREDIT: Clinical Cancer Research) Challenges In Early Detection That low survival rate is primarily due to the fact that most symptoms present late in the course of illness. By that point, the disease is generally already disseminated, and there is no current …