Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma screening: new perspectives

Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma accounts for more than 90% of all pancreatic cancers and its incidence has increased significantly worldwide. Patients with pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma have a poor outcome and more than 95% of the people affected die from the disease within 12 mo after diagnosis. Surgery is the first-line treatment in the case of resectable neoplasm, but only 20% of patients are candidates for this approach. One of the reasons there are few candidates for surgery is that, during the early phases of the disease, the symptoms are poor or non-specific. Early diagnosis is of crucial importance to improve patient outcome; therefore, we are looking for a good screening test. The screening test must identify the disease in an early stage in order to be effective; having said this, a need exists to introduce the concept of "early" ductal adenocarcinoma. It has been reported that at least five additional years after the occurrence of the initiating mutation are required for the acquisition of metastatic ability of pancreatic adenocarcinoma and patients die an average of two years thereafter. We have reviewed the most recent literature in order to evaluate the present and future perspectives of screening programs of this deadly disease.