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World J Gastroenterol. Jun 7, 2026; 32(21): 116581
Published online Jun 7, 2026. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v32.i21.116581
Published online Jun 7, 2026. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v32.i21.116581
First large-scale prospective evaluation of serum S100A6 as a complementary biomarker for early pancreatic cancer detection
Go Eun Bae, Sang-Mi Kim, Soo-Youn Lee, Department of Laboratory Medicine and Genetics, Samsung Medical Center, Sungkyunkwan University School of Medicine, Seoul 06351, South Korea
Sang-Mi Kim, Department of Laboratory Medicine and Genetics, Chosun University Hospital, Chosun University School of Medicine, Gwangju 61453, South Korea
Jong Kyun Lee, Division of Gastroenterology, Department of Medicine, Samsung Medical Center, Sungkyunkwan University School of Medicine, Seoul 06351, South Korea
Co-first authors: Go Eun Bae and Sang-Mi Kim.
Author contributions: Bae GE, Kim SM, and Lee SY conceived and designed the analysis; Kim SM and Lee SY collected the data; Bae GE and Lee JK contributed data or analysis tools; Bae GE performed the analysis; Bae GE and Kim SM wrote the paper, they contributed equally to this manuscript and are co-first authors.
Supported by the National Research Foundation of Korea Grant funded by the Korea government, No. 2021R1A2C1006409.
Institutional review board statement: The study was approved by the Institutional Review Board of Samsung Medical Center (No. SMC IRB 2021-02-153).
Informed consent statement: The Institutional Review Board of Samsung Medical Center waived the requirement for informed consent.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All the authors report no relevant conflicts of interest for this article.
STROBE statement: The authors have read the STROBE Statement-checklist of items, and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the STROBE Statement-checklist of items.
Data sharing statement: The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author (Lee SY), upon reasonable request.
Corresponding author: Soo-Youn Lee, MD, PhD, Professor, Department of Laboratory Medicine and Genetics, Samsung Medical Center, Sungkyunkwan University School of Medicine, 81 Irwon-ro, Gangnam-gu, Seoul 06351, South Korea. suddenbz@skku.edu
Received: November 18, 2025
Revised: January 27, 2026
Accepted: March 5, 2026
Published online: June 7, 2026
Processing time: 192 Days and 23.9 Hours
Revised: January 27, 2026
Accepted: March 5, 2026
Published online: June 7, 2026
Processing time: 192 Days and 23.9 Hours
Core Tip
Core Tip: This large-scale case-control study is the first to evaluate the clinical potential of serum S100A6 as a biomarker for pancreatic cancer (PC). When used together with carbohydrate antigen 19-9 (CA19-9), serum S100A6 significantly improved diagnostic accuracy over CA19-9 alone. Importantly, the triple panel including S100A6, CA19-9, and carcinoembryonic antigen significantly improved the differentiation of early-stage PC from chronic pancreatitis. These findings suggest that serum S100A6 may contribute to earlier and more accurate diagnosis of PC. Such improvement could enable timely identification of patients eligible for curative resection. Additional validation in independent and diverse patient populations is warranted.