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Timing of blood extraction in epidemiologic and proteomic studies: results and proposals from the PANKRAS II Study

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An Erratum to this article was published on 10 October 2007

Abstract

There are no consensus guidelines or standards for epidemiologic and ‘-omics’ studies using blood biomarkers on how to report the timing of extraction of blood samples. However, disease-induced changes in blood concentrations of exogenous and endogenous compounds may bias studies. The aim of the present report is to describe the timing of blood collection with respect to a variety of relevant clinical events in the PANKRAS II Study, and to suggest ways to display graphically the quantitative information. Subjects were 167 incident cases of exocrine pancreatic cancer prospectively recruited in five teaching hospitals in eastern Spain. Over 80% of patients had blood extracted during the first 6 months since onset of cancer symptoms, and 82% within the first month of admission to a study hospital. Over 80% of cases had blood drawn after an ultrasound, a CT scan or an ERCP, 25% after a laparotomy, and 37% after treatment onset. All three intervals from blood extraction to diagnosis, to treatment onset and to interview had a median of 0 days, and 88% of cases had blood drawn within 2 weeks of diagnosis. Over 72% of cases had concentrations of total lipids in the medium, normal range. Results suggest ways to report intervals involving blood biomarkers and may contribute to develop consensus guidelines and standards on the collection of blood samples in epidemiologic and ‘-omics’ research.

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Abbreviations

PANKRAS II:

Multicentre prospective study on the role of K-ras and other genetic alterations in the diagnosis, prognosis and etiology of pancreatic and biliary diseases

EPC:

Exocrine pancreatic cancer

CI:

Confidence interval

SD:

Standard deviation

CT:

Computerized axial tomography

ERCP:

Endoscopic retrograde colangiopancreatography

TPCH:

Transparietohepatic cholangiography

TNM:

Tumour-node-metastasis system

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by research grants from Generalitat de Catalunya (CIRIT SGR 0241, SGR 0078); ‘Red temática de investigación cooperativa de centros en Cáncer’ (C03/10), ‘Red temática de investigación cooperativa de centros en Epidemiología y salud pública’ (C03/09); CIBER de Epidemiologíay Salud Publica (CIBERESP), Instituto de Salud Carlos III. The authors gratefully acknowledge scientific advice provided by Elisa Puigdomènech, Marta Crous-Bou, Ángel Vicente, Luisa Guarner, Francisco X. Real, Juli Rifà, Alfredo Carrato and Josep M. Corominas, as well as technical assistance from David J. MacFarlane, Isabel Egea and Silvia Geeraerd.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Clinical & Molecular Epidemiology of Cancer Unit, Institut Municipal d’Investigació Mèdica, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Carrer del Dr. Aiguader 88, 08003, Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain

    Miquel Porta, José Pumarega, Olga Ferrer-Armengou, Tomàs López, Joan Alguacil & Núria Malats

  2. School of Medicine, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain

    Miquel Porta

  3. CIBER en Epidemiología y Salud Pública (CIBERESP), Barcelona, Spain

    Miquel Porta, José Pumarega, Tomàs López & Joan Alguacil

  4. Department of Environmental Biology & Public Health, University of Huelva, Huelva, Spain

    Joan Alguacil

  5. Institut Català d’Oncologia, Barcelona, Spain

    Esteve Fernàndez

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  1. Miquel Porta
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Correspondence to Miquel Porta.

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PANKRAS II Study Group—Members of the Multicentre Prospective Study on the Role of K-ras and other Genetic Alterations in the Diagnosis, Prognosis and Etiology of Pancreatic and Biliary Diseases (PANKRAS II) Study Group are mentioned in previous publications.

An erratum to this article can be found at http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10654-007-9192-4

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Porta, M., Pumarega, J., Ferrer-Armengou, O. et al. Timing of blood extraction in epidemiologic and proteomic studies: results and proposals from the PANKRAS II Study. Eur J Epidemiol 22, 577–588 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10654-007-9149-7

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