05.03.2026
Michal Holčapek and his team of analytical chemists from the University of Pardubice have managed to refine their revolutionary method that would detect pancreatic cancer using only a blood test using lipid analysis.
Researchers from the University of Pardubice, led by Michal Holčapek, have long been engaged in lipid analysis and their use in the detection of various types of cancer . They measured a series of samples in cooperation with Lipidica, a joint venture between the university and the FONS JK Group holding.
The new information was published by the journal Communications Medicine , which is part of the portfolio of the prestigious publishing house Nature .
A scientific team has proven, for the first time in the world, that it is possible to detect pancreatic cancer using lipid analysis using a blood test alone. This can distinguish patients from healthy people with high accuracy. Now, the scientists have tested and published that their method does not fail even in people who have the prerequisites for developing this disease.
"This is a fundamental finding. Our screening method can very accurately distinguish patients and people with a high risk of developing pancreatic cancer. This means that the method can also be used for a group of people at high risk of developing this disease," said Michal Holčapek from the Faculty of Chemical Technology at the University of Pardubice.
People at high risk of developing pancreatic cancer are the primary target group for screening . While the lifetime risk of developing pancreatic cancer in the general population is about 1.5 percent, in people at high risk it is more than 5 percent. Serious risk factors for developing this type of cancer include genetic burden and the occurrence of the disease in the family . The blood test, which was developed based on research at the University of Pardubice, could be launched after the successful completion of clinical tests of the method. Clinical validation is currently underway and Lipidica is cooperating with 16 hospitals and specialized centers throughout the Czech Republic.
Pancreatic cancer is one of the most aggressive types of cancer. Statistics show that only 13 percent of patients survive 5 years after diagnosis . The poor prognosis is largely due to the lack of reliable tools for early detection. A non-invasive blood test with high sensitivity and specificity could help improve patient outcomes in the future.
Michal Holčapek's scientific team has been dedicated to lipid analysis for more than twenty-five years. In recent years, the team's work has appeared several times in prestigious scientific journals such as Nature Metabolism or Nature Communications . The discovery of analytical chemists in 2022, when they first published a paper describing the possibility of early detection of pancreatic cancer based on a lipidomics test, is among the most cited articles in the field of biology and biochemistry, according to the Web of Science database.
