Osaka University researchers said Wednesday that they have developed a method to test for pancreatic cancer with pancreatic cells or DNA collected through a modified catheter during gastric examinations.

Professor Shinichi Yachida of Osaka University's Graduate School of Medicine and his colleagues said that the effectiveness of the method has been confirmed through special clinical research mainly on patients.

If put into practical use, the method would make it easier to detect pancreatic cancer early, which is often very difficult.

Under the method, genetic testing is conducted to determine whether pancreatic cancer is present by collecting pancreatic cells or DNA contained in liquid flowing into the duodenum, the first part of the small intestine next to the stomach, using the modified catheter during gastric cancer examinations.

The duodenum has what is called the papillary area, where pancreatic juice flows from the pancreas and bile flows from the liver.

Most pancreatic cancer cells are known to have a mutated KRAS gene. If pancreatic cells or DNA contained in pancreatic juice can be collected from the duodenal area, it will be possible to identify whether the gene is mutated.

Yachida and his team modified a catheter for gastroscopy. Under their method, the device is inserted into the duodenum and saline is sprayed over the papillary area until just before fluid including pancreatic juice is collected from there.

But the method requires an injection of secretin, a hormone that promotes the secretion of pancreatic juice, into a vein before the examination.

In the clinical research, the team used synthetic human secretin, which is approved as a pharmaceutical in the United States but not approved or sold in Japan.

"It needs to be imported from the United States or manufactured and sold by a Japanese company," Yachida said.

If this is realized, people at high risk, such as those who have a pancreatic cancer patient in the family, "will be able to take this pancreatic cancer test additionally during their stomach cancer examinations, allowing early detection and treatment," he added.