Table 2.

Summary of Recommended Future Directions for the Field.

• Cases and controls matched according to age, sex and race.

• The use of pretreatment blood samples.

• Studies combining methylated gene-panels and other diagnostic modalities.

• Large validation studies including cases with early stage cancer and controls with benign pancreatic disease.

• Validation on cases with pancreatic cancer precursor lesions.

• Validation on cases with increased risk of pancreatic cancer e.g., subjects with a risk of familial pancreatic cancer and subjects with diabetes.

• Retrospective longitudinal studies.

• Prospective screening studies of subjects with increased risk of pancreatic cancer.