Diagnostic evaluation of pancreatic carcinoma prompting treatment decisions

An early diagnosis or even sufficient screening tools may allow improved and/or more successful treatment strategies for pancreatic carcinomas. Presently, we have no useful screening tools available. The 5 year survival rates of those suffering from pancreatic cancer is around 3%, with only 15% of patients at diagnosis available for curative resection protocols. Thus, better diagnostic procedures for populations at risk are urgently required. Today, endosonography complements new CT and MRI tests. High resolution CT and contrast enhanced MRI procedures are rapidly evolving and may offer more precise diagnostic opportunities. PET tests help discriminating benign from neoplastic tumors, and new molecular markers may offer the opportunity to screen patients at risk with the hope for an early diagnosis. Nevertheless, the technical progress made in tomographic procedures is developing so rapidly that comparative studies are often outdated at publication. Therefore, we have reason to hope for improved diagnostic skills, but presently have only limited data for the new techniques currently available.