CA19-9: the Italian experience.

This article reviews studies of the diagnostic value of CA19-9 determination in pancreatic cancer in Italy. Almost all of these studies show that CA19-9 determination has a good sensitivity in the diagnosis of advanced pancreatic cancer and that its diagnostic accuracy is superior to that of the other serum tumor markers currently available. Although data from patients with early pancreatic cancer are limited, they indicate that the diagnostic value of CA19-9 in these patients is low.