Screening for pancreatic neoplasia in high-risk individuals: who, what, when, how?

Pancreatic cancer (PC) is a highly lethal disease. Most symptomatic, clinically detected PCs are advanced and not curable. Indeed, the estimated 5-year survival rate is 4%, which is attributable to late diagnosis and low resection rate. Screening of high-risk individuals and early detection of small PCs and precursor lesions might improve the outcome if curative therapy could be offered in the presymptomatic stage. This article summarizes the available published data and preliminary results and discusses the different approaches to screening for pancreatic neoplasia at 2 university-based programs in the United States.