Analysis of circulating cytokines for identification of malignant intraductal papillary mucinous neoplasms of the pancreas

Intraductal papillary mucinous neoplasms (IPMNs) of the pancreas are the precursor lesions of pancreatic cancers, requiring active surgical intervention during cancer development. The current criteria for predicting malignant IPMNs remain challenging and limited. A study at Fudan University (Shanghai, China) found that elevated levels of four cytokines discriminate between malignant and benign IPMNs. A nomogram of the circulating cytokine score combined with two imaging features had good diagnostic performance (AUC 0.928 in the development cohort and AUC 0.873 in the validation cohort).