Abstract
Pancreatic cancer is projected to become the second most common cause of cancer-related death in the United States in 2030, overtaking deaths from breast and colon cancers. Although increased screening has led to improvements in the detection of certain cancers such as colorectal cancer, the same is not true for pancreatic cancer. The diagnosis of pancreatic cancer, especially early-stage pancreatic cancer, is still challenging for clinicians. In spite of progresses in our understanding of the carcinogenesis of pancreatic cancer, improved resolution of imaging equipment, and development of screening methods based on molecular biology, the prognosis of patients with pancreatic cancer is still poor. The most promising method of increasing the survival rate of patients with pancreatic cancer is early-stage detection. However, the diagnosis of pancreatic cancer is difficult because of nonspecific symptoms in early cases and the lack of effective diagnostic tools. We look forward to new biomarkers with good sensitivity and specificity or new combinations of existing biomarkers to improve sensitivity or specificity for pancreatic cancer diagnosis. Advances in the field of imaging technique should make high-resolution equipment available in the future, and we hope that new imaging modalities combined with various contrasts would increase diagnostic effectiveness for pancreatic cancer.

Keywords
pancreatic cancer; biomarker; imaging

Cite this paper
Xiao-Dong Shao, Dilemma and solution in diagnosing pancreatic cancer , SCIREA Journal of Clinical Medicine. Volume 4, Issue 5, October 2019 | PP. 123-142.

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