Noninvasive diagnosis of advanced pancreatic cancer by real-time ultrasonography, carcinoembryonic antigen, and carbohydrate antigen 19-9.

One-hundred-forty patients with clinical impression of pancreatic cancer were examined prospectively with three noninvasive tests: real-time ultrasonography, determination of serum carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA), and carbohydrate antigen (CA 19-9). Among them, 24 (17.1%) patients were found to have pancreatic cancer. The sensitivity of ultrasonography, CEA, and CA 19-9 was 72.9%, 70.8%, and 83.3%, respectively; the specificity was 94.0%, 77.6%, and 90.5%, respectively, and the diagnostic accuracy was 91.4%, 76.4%, and 89.3%, respectively. The combination of ultrasonography and determination of serum CA 19-9 had better sensitivity (95.8%), comparable specificity (84.5%), and comparable diagnostic accuracy (86.4%) to any individual test alone or any other combination. It was suggested that combined use of real-time ultrasonography and determination of serum CA 19-9 provided excellent noninvasive screening for patients suspected of having pancreatic cancer.