[Value of diagnostic procedures in pancreatic cancer]

At the Surgical Department of Münster University in-patient treatment was applied to 320 patients for pancreas carcinoma, between 1977 and 1984. These cases were concomitantly studied for informative potentials of computed tomography (CT), sonography (Sono), and endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography (ERCP). CT was performed on 163 patients (50.3 per cent), Sono on 180 (56.3 per cent), and ERCP on 90 (28.1 per cent). Highest sensitivity was recorded from ERCP, with 91.1 per cent of correctly positive diagnoses. CT gave correct positive findings in 70.5 per cent of all cases and Sono in 61.1 per cent. Resection rates were not increased by introduction of these new techniques, but the rate rather stayed at 14.8 per cent. While the period between hospitalisation and operation was slightly reduced, surgical intervention was too late for curative resection in most cases. In some highly advanced cases with distant metastases but absence of symptoms on the basis of CT findings, exploratory laparotomy was abandoned. The new methods have improved diagnostic accuracy rather than prognosis of pancreas carcinoma.