Tumor Biomarkers and Diagnosis of Pancreatic Adenocarcinoma

Pancreatic adenocarcinoma is one of the highly malignant cancers of gastrointestinal tract. Patients during the initial stages usually do not present characteristic signs and symptoms. Even if malignancy is suspected, differentiation between the malignant and benign conditions might be challenging. Recently, an increasing interest has been focused on the utility of immunological tumor markers. The use of tumor biomarkers aims at catching/identifying the cancer at a relatively earlier stage, surveillance, response to the treatment, endpoints, and any adverse effects. Based on biochemical characteristics, tumor markers can be classified into multiple groups including genetic, glycoproteins, ribonucleic acids (RNAs), proteins, oncofetal antigenic markers, metabolite-based markers, and so on. In this chapter, we sought to discuss some important biomarkers that can be useful in the diagnostic evaluation of pancreatic adenocarcinoma.