Soluble MICA is elevated in pancreatic cancer: results from a population based case-control study

Abstract

Objectives: Pancreatic cancer is diagnosed at a late stage and has one of the highest cancer mortality rates in the U.S., creating an urgent need for novel early detection tools. A candidate biomarker for use in early detection is the soluble MHC class I-related chain A (s-MICA) ligand, which pancreatic tumors shed to escape immune detection. The objective of this study was to define the association between s-MICA levels and pancreatic cancer, in a population-based case-control study.

Methods: S-MICA was measured in 163 pancreatic cancer cases and 542 controls. Unconditional logistic regression was used to calculate odds ratio (OR) for pancreatic cancer, and 95% confidence intervals (CI). Results: There was a positive association between increasing s-MICA levels and pancreatic cancer: compared to the lowest tertile, the ORs for pancreatic cancer were 1.25 (95% CI: 0.75 - 2.07) and 2.10 (95% CI: 1.29 -3.42) in the second and highest tertiles, respectively (p-trend=0.02).

Conclusions: Our study supports previous work demonstrating a positive association between plasma s-MICA levels and pancreatic cancer. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved

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