GDF15 and exocrine pancreatic carcinoma: In detecting early-stage pancreatic carcinomas (stage I and II), the sensitivity of MIC-1 was much higher than that of CA19.9 (65.1% vs.43.0%); even in very early-stage pancreatic carcinomas (stage Ia; n = 16), MIC-1 showed an obviously higher sensitivity of 62.5% compared to CA19.9’s sensitivity of 25.0%.