Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma staging

Abstract

In addition to clinical history and evaluations, the results of laboratory tests and imaging studies help clinicians in determining treatment strategies. Imaging plays a central role in the management of oncology patients including the initial diagnosis, staging, and follow-up to assess treatment response. Historically, radiologists have relied on free-style dictations to convey the results of imaging findings in radiology reports to referring clinicians. These unstructured freestyle dictations can potentially be a source of frustration as the pertinent information needed to guide treatment may be omitted or difficult to extract from the report, thereby limiting its completeness and usefulness. These limitations can be overcome by adopting a structured and reproducible form of reporting imaging studies to help clinicians in deciding the best treatment strategy for each patient. There is a growing need to establish standardized radiology reporting templates for specific disease processes. One such example involves patients with pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma, as imaging findings determine the treatment arm to which the patient is assigned. In this presentation, we outline a list of essential features that need to be included in a structured report and highlight this with illustrative case examples. © 2013 International Cancer Imaging Society.