Screening for Early Pancreatic Neoplasia (Cancer of the Pancreas Screening or CAPS4 Study)

Pancreatic cancer is a deadly disease and the only hope for improvement of survival is early detection. Certain genetic syndromes are associated with a high risk of pancreatic cancer and screening for pancreatic cancer has become a relatively new strategy for familial pancreatic cancer. . Our pancreatic cancer research group at Johns Hopkins and others have shown that screening with EUS and/or abdominal imaging tests such as CT/MRI can detect a relatively high number of significant pancreatic neoplasms (7-18%) in asymptomatic high risk individuals with an inherited predisposition for pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma This is a clinical, early detection translational study that will directly influence patient care. This long term study follows the successful completion of single center Cancer of the Pancreas (CAPS) 1 and CAPS 2 studies at Johns Hopkins, and the ongoing CAPS 3 multicenter study. GENERAL AIM: This is a study that aims to evaluate the diagnostic yield, quality of life, and clinical outcomes of a clinical screening and surveillance program for individuals at-risk for pancreatic cancer and to validate a candidate panel of biomarkers for early detection of pancreatic neoplasia. The 3 specific groups to be screened and followed are individuals from familial pancreatic cancer kindreds (who have 2 or more affected relatives and have an estimated risk 16-57 times that of controls), patients with familial Peutz-Jeghers syndrome, patients with a known BRCA-2, BRCA-1, PALB2, PRSS or p16 germline mutation.