The use and mechanism of urinary clearance of cathodic trypsin-like immunoreactivity to creatinine clearance ratio in the diagnosis of pancreatic cancer.

The ratio between urinary clearance of cathodic trypsin-like immunoreactivity and creatinine clearance (CTr/CCr ratio) was evaluated as a test for pancreatic cancer in patients with chronic pancreatic diseases and gastrointestinal diseases clinically mistakable for pancreatic cancer. The efficiency of the CTr/CCr ratio in the diagnosis of pancreatic cancer was no better than the urinary clearances of albumin and beta2-microglobulin to creatinine clearance (CA1b/CCr ratio and C beta 2m/CCr ratio). An overall positive association was found between the three ratios. Furthermore, there was a positive relationship between proteinuria and elevation of any of the ratios--as well as between proteinuria and the degree of cancer dissemination. The latter was positively associated with elevation of any of the three ratios. The results point to a changed renal handling of proteins due to cancer disease per se as the mechanism causing elevated CTr/CCr ratios in pancreatic cancer.