Patent ID: 8574854

Claim:
A method of detecting or diagnosing pancreatic cancer comprising: a) obtaining a fresh serum sample from an individual; b) removing an inhibitor of antibody binding by organic phase extraction of the fresh serum sample, prior to immunoassay; and c) performing an immunoassay with an anti-mucin antibody or antigen-binding fragment thereof to detect the presence of a pancreatic cancer mucin antigen in the sample, wherein the antibody or fragment thereof binds to the same epitope as or competes for binding to pancreatic cancer mucin antigen with an antibody that comprises the light chain variable region CDR sequences CDR1 (SASSSVSSSYLY, SEQ ID NO: 1); CDR2 (STSNLAS, SEQ ID NO:2); and CDR3 (HQWNRYPYT, SEQ ID NO:3); and the heavy chain variable region CDR sequences CDR1 (SYVLH, SEQ ID NO:4); CDR2 (YINPYNDGTQYNEKFKG, SEQ ID NO:5) and CDR3 (GFGGSYGFAY, SEQ ID NO:6); wherein the presence of the pancreatic cancer mucin antigen is indicative of pancreatic cancer in the individual and the immunoassay can detect early stage pancreatic cancer.