Precancerous Conditions and Risk Factors for Pancreatic and Bile Duct Cancer

Abstract

Pancreatic cancer has one of the worst prognoses of any type of cancer. Early detection and surgery is the best chance for cure. However, symptoms are typically vague and occur when the cancer is unresectable. Early detection through screening is likely to be the best hope to improve survival. The relatively low incidence of pancreatic cancer and the insensitive screening techniques currently available render this approach expensive and inefficient in the general population. Early detection and screening for pancreatic cancer in the current state should be limited to highrisk patiens. But hereditary factors account about 10% of patients with pancreatic cancer (familial pancreatic cancer, hereditary pancreatitis, Peutz Jeghers syndrom etc.). Continued efforts are needed to discover effective test to identify patients with nonhereditary risk factors who will benefit from screening and also to develop less invasive and more costeffective screening modalities aimed at controlling pancreatic cancer. A combined ap-proach of serum markers, genetic markers and specific imaging studies may prove to be the future of pancreatic screening.