[Pancreas cancer: staging with dynamic computerized tomography]

Carcinoma of the pancreas continues to present a most unfavorable prognosis. 90% of the tumours cannot be operated on and the survival time of these patients is 2-6 months. In a prospective study based on 23 patients it was investigated whether comprehensive staging of the carcinoma of the pancreas can be performed via computed tomography so that operable carcinomas alone must be presented for laparotomy. Results of CT were compared with those of angiography and laparotomy. Differentiation between stage 1 (tumour restricted to organ) and stage 2 (limited lymph node metastasising) is limited if effected via CT. However, it was possible to differentiate between the non-operable stages 3 and 4 with a sensitivity of 88% and a specificity of 78%. CT showed particularly high sensitivity in patients with vascular involvement.