Abstract
Pancreatic cancer is a highly malignant and invasive gastrointestinal tumor that is often diagnosed at an advanced stage with a poor prognosis and high mortality. Currently, carbohydrate antigen199(CA199) is the only biomarker approved by the FDA for the diagnosis of pancreatic cancer, but it has great limitations. Growth differentiation factor-15 (GDF-15) is expected to be a novel biomarker for the diagnosis, efficacy prediction, and prognosis assessment of pancreatic cancer patients. In this paper, we searched the keywords GDF-15, macrophage inhibitory cytokine-1 (MIC-1), CA199, pancreatic cancer, and tumor markers in PubMed and Web of Science, searched related articles, and read and analyzed the retrieved papers. Finally, we systematically described the characteristics, mechanism of action, and clinical value of GDF-15, aiming to provide help for the detection and treatment of pancreatic cancer.