The study, which has just been published in Nature Communications, represents progress toward the development of screening programs among the population, an essential tool for advancing early diagnosis. It is led by Núria Malats and Evangelina López de Maturana, from the Epidemiology and Molecular Genetics Group at CNIO.

Early diagnosis poses a major challenge in pancreatic cancer, since high mortality rates are associated with the fact that it is usually detected once it is very advanced.

The genes identified are part of an innate defense mechanism within the body, the complement system. When the proteins of the complement system fail, or if they are lacking or produced in excess, diseases can appear. Very few studies so far have linked the complement system with cancer.