Patient group Number Gender Age (Mean ± SD) UICC Cancer stage/ type of benign disease Female Male Control (CTR) 38 28 10 30.19 ± 4.4 -------- Pancreatic Cancer (PAN) 17 5 12 59.97 ± 8.86 IA (2), IB (5), IIA (3), IIB (7) Gastric Cancer (STO) 35 8 27 63.86 ± 8.27 IB (10), II (8); IIIA (6), IIIB (4), IV (7) Benign diseases pancreas (BP) 8 4 4 54.69 ± 14.45 pancreatitis (7), serous cyst (1) Benign diseases stomach (BS) 10 2 8 59.01 ± 14.47 stromal tumor (4), active ulcer (3), chronic gastric ulcer (1), gastric schwannoma (1), inflammatory fibroid polyp (1)

Table 1: Demographic data of investigated patient groups. Given are the numbers of patient samples and gender, average and standard deviation for age, subgroups of patients differing in type of benign disease or in cancer stage classified according to the Union of International Cancer Control (UICC).