[Pancreatic adenocarcinoma - early symptoms and screening]

Pancreatic adenocarcinoma is a dismal disease with a very serious prognosis and a very low 5-year survival. Local symptoms are present at a late stage of the disease and in the majority of cases do not enable radical surgery. Intervention is possible only in locally restricted tumor and remains the only chance of significant survival. At present, two early symptoms of this growth are known. They include impaired glucose tolerance or diabetes similar to but not identical with diabetes type 2, and a decrease of the body mass. They precede by a period of 2-3 years local symptoms that are late and cause the bad prognosis. The earlier diagnosis of pancreatic adenocarcinoma represents an urgent and serious task. The project of a screening program based on the use of the early symptoms may move the diagnosis of pancreatic adenocarcinoma to the earlier stage of the disease. The key-players for the most important first step of this program are general practitioners and ambulatory diabetologists.