The malignant potential of pancreatic intraductal papillary mucinous neoplasm is reflected in expression levels of fucosylated glycans in α -acid glycoprotein.

Background: Pancreatic intraductal papillary mucinous neoplasm (IPMN) involves multiple histopathological stages from benign to malignant lesions. Further, a biomarker to diagnose the malignant IPMN (IPMC) is clinically relevant. Recently, we found that serum fucosylated α -acid glycoprotein (fAGP) level markedly elevated along with disease progression in large cohorts of patients with various cancers.

Methods: The fAGP level was retrospectively analyzed in preoperative sera from 109 patients with IPMN, and the clinical relevance of fAGP was compared with currently available predictors as standard.

Results: The fAGP level in IPMC was found to be significantly higher than in benign IPMN (P = .0012). At a cutoff value of 27.04 U/μg, its sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy for IPMC were determined to be 83.61%, 65.96%, and 75.93%, respectively. Multivariate analyses revealed that the fAGP level was the only independent risk factor for predicting IPMC. Additionally, a combination of the fAGP level and F-fluorodeoxyglucose uptake on the PET/CT imaging in the lesions seemed to offer the best diagnosis of IPMN. Accordingly, 27 of the 28 patients who were positive in both tests had IPMC, while patients who are negative had benign IPMN.

Conclusions: The fAGP level appeared to be a relevant biomarker for malignant potential of IPMN.