[The latest advances in pancreatic tumors]

Pancreatic cancer (PC) continues to have a poor prognosis. New epidemiological trials have suggested that there may be protective factors, such as aspirin or oleic acid intake. The main diagnostic tool for PC is endoscopic ultrasound (EUS), and new EUS-related technologies have appeared, such as quantitative elastography (strain ratio and hue histogram analysis), intravenous contrasts, and the new procore needles to help in the differential diagnosis with other diseases (mainly chronic pancreatitis). In the next few years, intratumoral confocal endomicroscopy will be used for the diagnosis of PC and cystic tumors, by inserting a miniprobe inside the 19G needle of the echoendoscope. Notable therapeutic developments are studies on the safety, feasibility and accuracy of intratumoral gemcitabine administration by EUS-fine needle injection in the treatment of locally advanced PC. In the treatment of cystic tumors of the pancreas, mainly intraductal papillary mucinous neoplasms (IPMN), most studies aim to optimize follow up by assessing predictive factors of malignant transformation and evaluating the natural history of this neoplasm.