Patent ID: 8481275

Claim:
A method of detecting pancreatic cancer, comprising: collecting a sample from a living body of a suspected patient; contacting a fucose α1→6 specific lectin to the sample in order to be allowed to act on pathological haptoglobin present in the sample obtained from the living body and obtain a lectin-pathological haptoglobin complex, said lectin: (1) being extracted from basidiomycetes, (2) having a molecular weight of 4,000 to 40,000 as determined by the SDS polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis, (3) having affinity for fucose α1→6 sugar chains with a binding constant of 1.0×10 4 M −1 or more at 25° C., and (4) having a binding constant 1.0×10 3 M −1 or less at 25° C. for a high mannose sugar chain, which is an asparagine-linked sugar chain wherein a chitobiose core is bound to five to nine mannose residues, and/or a glycolipid which does not contain a fucose α1→6 sugar chain; and determining the lectin-pathological haptoglobin complex by an assay selected from the group consisting of ELISA, lectin chromatography, lectin blotting, lectin staining, lectin chip, a condensation method and a surface plasmon resonance method to detect the occurrence of the pancreatic cancer.