Athens, Ga. – Pancreatic cancer is one of the deadliest cancers, but work being conducted by a team of University of Georgia researchers aims to help physicians diagnose the disease early, when it’s more easily treated.Funded by a $2.1 million grant from the National Institutes of Health, a team of UGA Cancer Center researchers is studying the fluid secreted by the pancreas to determine if subtle changes in proteins and the sugars that adorn the proteins, known as glycans, can herald the presence of cancerous or precancerous cells. The UGA effort is part of a $15.5 million, five-year NIH initiative to discover, develop and clinically validate new early diagnostic tests for cancer by studying glycans.
