Alessia Lodi1, Hubert J. Stoppler2, Matthew Firpo3, Sean J. Mulvihill3, Margaret A. Tempero4, Sabrina M. Ronen1
1Department of Radiology and Biomedical Imaging, University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, United States; 2Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center, University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, United States; 3Department of Surgery, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, United States; 4Department of Medicine, University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, United States
Pancreatic cancer is the fourth leading cause of cancer-related death in the United States. Because over 80% of pancreatic cancer cases are diagnosed at an advanced stage, survival rates are poor for all stages of the disease. Survival rates improve if the tumor is localized at diagnosis and can be surgically removed. Novel, non-invasive methods for early diagnosis of pancreatic cancer are needed. Here we report a very significant decrease of the high intensity lipid signals in the cancerous specimens compared to matched uninvolved pancreatic biopsies which may represent a candidate biomarker for the early detection of pancreatic cancer.