Adrenomedullin in pancreatic carcinoma. a case-control study of 22 patients

Pancreatic carcinoma is a leading cause of cancer-related death. Reduction of the diagnostic delay is mandatory. Adrenomedullin (AM) is overexpressed in pancreatic cancer. A case-control study including 12 patients with pathological diagnosis of pancreatic carcinoma and 10 healthy controls was conducted at our Institution. Blood samples were obtained at the time of hospitalization and post-operatively for cases. Controls’ samples were obtained from healthy volunteers. AM was measured by using enzyme immunoassay method. AM showed significant increase in pancreatic carcinoma patients vs controls (4.51 ng/ml vs 1.91 ng/ml, p value = 0.04) regardless of tumor stage, differentiation, resecability/unresecability, diabetes. A cut-off of 1.75 ng/ml reaches a sensibility of 83% and a specificity of 70% (p value = 0.0147; CL 95%; AUC 0.767). The increase of AM didn’t correlate with the increase of other common tumor markers (CA 19-9 and CEA), nor direct bilirubin. These data confirm the utility of studying the role of AM in pancreatic cancer, in order to achieve an early diagnosis in high risk populations.