The project
Pancreatic cancer (PC) is often diagnosed at a late stage when surgery is only possible for 20% of people and half of patients survive less than 12 months. There is an urgent need to diagnose PC early. PC can develop from pancreas cysts.
Current tests cannot accurately predict whether patient’s cyst is benign, pre-malignant or malignant. People with pancreas cysts often have surgery to remove the part or the entire pancreas only to find out the cyst was benign. Surgery can cause serious side effects or death.
Dr Leonid Nikitenko, Professor Anthony Maraveyas and Dr Darragh O’Brien from the Universities of Hull and Oxford are leading a multidisciplinary team to test pancreas cyst fluid and blood to find a protein ‘signature’ which can help to assess the risk of a cyst becoming cancerous and develop a less invasive test for early diagnosis of pancreatic cancer. A test which can accurately determine the cancerous risk of cysts early would increase survival and decrease unnecessary surgery.
What are you going to do?
The team will test the pancreas cyst fluid and blood from 120 people for proteins associated with PC. In their pilot work, they have tested cyst fluid from 30 patients and found a group of proteins accurately predicting if the cyst is benign, pre-cancerous or cancerous. They will check cyst fluid from more people across three hospitals (Hull, London and Glasgow) to validate if this group of proteins can identify cancerous potential of cysts.
They will then test for this group of proteins in blood from the same group of people. By comparing the results to the cyst fluid and medical records, they aim to understand if such a blood test can predict the risk of PC development.
Why is this research important?
Leonid, Anthony and Darragh’s goal is to develop a test to assess the risk of pancreas cysts turning into PC. Within the NHS, most people with pancreas cysts currently have the fluid removed during endoscopic ultrasound and it is readily available to be tested.
Should the team show that proteins in the blood can also be used to accurately predict the risk of cysts becoming PC, they will then be able to undertake a larger study to develop a blood-based test, as a much less invasive procedure. The development of a test (by using either pancreas cyst fluid or blood) which can detect and diagnose PC at an early stage will lead to a much-improved survival rate and a reduction of unnecessary surgery.
How to get involved
Leonid, Anthony and Darragh would like you to review their project summary and public and patient involvement (PPI) plan and give your thoughts and opinions. This document review will be undertaken via email and your comments will be anonymised.
A £25 Amazon Voucher will be provided to participants who have reviewed the project summary and PPI plan.
Should the project be successfully funded the team are also looking for individuals to join:
Patient and Public Advisory Group – This will consist of an initial welcome meeting online and online meetings every six months over the course of the 3-year study lasting approximately one hour. There will also be opportunities to visit the labs in-person at the University of Hull which will last 1.5 hours.
Steering Committee – This will consist of a 1 hour introductory meeting online at the start of the project, followed by meetings every six months which is expected to last for up to 4 hours.
Financial renumerations for time, meetings, travel and lunch will be provided based on NIHR guidance.
No scientific background or prior experience is needed to take part in this opportunity.
Next steps
If you are interested in undertaking the document review please email the Research Team (research@pancreaticcancer.org.uk) quoting the involvement reference ‘Leonid document review’. You will then be sent the documents to review along with some questions to answer and return to us by Sunday 14th September 2025.
If you are interested in the patient advisory group or steering committee or would like more information, please email Leonid Nikitenko (L.nikitenko@hull.ac.uk) quoting the involvement reference ‘RIN Patient group’.
