Key points from article :
Because the pancreas is deep inside the body and is difficult to image or biopsy, spotting the cancer is hard.
Only 5 per cent of people diagnosed with pancreatic cancer are still alive five years later.
The assay uses the binding of gold nanospheres to tumour-derived extracellular vesicles (EVs) captured on a sensor chip.
In a pilot study in 59 patients, it picked up early-stage pancreatic cancer in more than 90 per cent of cases.
Could differentiate between pancreatic cancer and pancreatitis.
The study was published in the Nature Biomedical Engineering journal.
