[Screening protocols for pancreatic cancer.]

Pancreatic cancer is one of the most aggressive malignancies and represents the seventh leading cause of cancer deaths in industrialized countries; in the United States, it is the third leading cause of death from cancer while in Italy it is the fourth. It is expected to become the second cancer death by 2030. The five-year survival rate is 9%, as patients with pancreatic cancer rarely exhibit symptoms until they reach an advanced stage of the disease. Therefore, despite advances in imaging techniques, over 80% of patients receive a diagnosis in the advanced stage of the disease and survival is not high at 5 years from the diagnosis despite the progress of chemotherapy and supportive therapies. An early diagnosis in people at risk is the main objective of clinical research on pancreatic cancer. The purpose of this review is to evaluate the current literature on the possibility and presence of screening programs to prevent, diagnose and treat this silent killer neoplasm.