Ricerc@Sapienza

As of 2017, no serum tumor marker has shown high levels of sensitivity or specificity for early detection, classification, staging, prediction and prognosis of patients affected by gastric cancer. In this regard, since 1975 several authors have investigated the gastric juice or gastric lavage of patients with gastric adenocarcinoma in order to determine the concentrations of intragastric tumor markers and discover the perfect antigen for this cancer. To date, however, a systematic review of the literature on intragastric tumor markers is still unreported.

Introduction: Protein induced by vitamin K absence II (PIVKA-II) is an abnormal prothrombin increased in gastrointestinal malignancy. We aimed
to evaluate PIVKA-II in comparison to established pancreatic cancer (PC) biomarkers (CA 19-9, carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) and CA 242) measured
in PC patients and in patients with benign pancreatic diseases.
Materials and methods: We studied 26 PC patients (Group 1) and 20 patients with benign pancreatic diseases (Group 2). PIVKA-II and CEA were