[The role of screening for carcinoma of the pancreas]

We discussed the possibility of the screening programs for the early detection in carcinoma of the pancreas. Several trials of screening have been conducted for the outpatients with diabetes mellitus, jaundice or upper abdominal pain by means of serum erastase-1, amylase and CA19-9 levels and the ultrasonography. The trials could detect 37 patients of 4250 (1.3%), 47 of 423,905 (0.011%) and 89 of 3585 (2.4%) with carcinoma of the pancreas. Despite effective screening program is not available, the screening carries the potential for improvement of the resectability and the mortality in the patients with carcinoma of the pancreas.