Copyright: ©Author(s) 2026. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license. No commercial re-use. See permissions. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc.
World J Gastroenterol. Nov 7, 2026; 32(41): 123870
Published online Nov 7, 2026. doi: 10.3748/wjg.123870
Published online Nov 7, 2026. doi: 10.3748/wjg.123870
Letter to the editor: Serum S100A6 as complementary biomarker for pancreatic cancer-an advance needing clearer delineation
Chun-Xiao Ni, Department of Minimally Invasive Oncology, Tai’an City Central Hospital, Tai’an 271000, Shandong Province, China
Jia-Ju Xu, Department of Medical Oncology, Tai’an City Central Hospital, Tai’an 271000, Shandong Province, China
Co-first authors: Chun-Xiao Ni and Jia-Ju Xu.
Author contributions: Ni CX and Xu JJ performed the writing, editing, and literature review, contributed equally to this work, thus qualified as the co-first authors of the paper; Xu JJ was responsible for the conceptualization, methodology, and supervision; all authors approved the final version.
AI contribution statement: DeepSeek was used solely for linguistic refinement and formatting assistance. No AI tool was involved in the generation of research data, interpretation of results, or formulation of conclusions. All AI-generated outputs were critically reviewed and revised by the authors.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All the authors report no relevant conflicts of interest for this article.
Corresponding author: Jia-Ju Xu, MD, Department of Medical Oncology, Tai’an City Central Hospital, No. 29 Longtan Road, Tai’an 271000, Shandong Province, China.
Received: June 1, 2026
Revised: June 15, 2026
Accepted: August 10, 2026
Published online: November 7, 2026
Processing time: 106 Days and 23 Hours
Revised: June 15, 2026
Accepted: August 10, 2026
Published online: November 7, 2026
Processing time: 106 Days and 23 Hours
Core Tip
Core Tip: This letter commends the innovative study by Bae et al as the first large prospective study evaluating serum S100A6 for early detection of pancreatic cancer, and outlines five points requiring attention. The “early-stage” group consists predominantly of stage II; absence of Lewis antigen status information limits mechanistic understanding of S100A6’s complementary role; single center design and use of historical samples limit generalizability; absence of decision curve analysis means net benefit is unassessed; and how S100A6 enters the circulation is unidentified. Overall, serum S100A6 is promising, but these limitations must be addressed before clinical implementation.