Pancreatic Cancer Screening in a Population at High Risk

Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is one of the cancers with the worst prognosis. Mortality in this disease is almost equal to the incidence. In the Czech Republic, the incidence of this cancer has an upward trend, in 2017, 21.2 new cases per 100,000 people were reported, which represents a more than double increase compared to the data from the 1970s. Pancreatic cancer is associated with an extremely poor prognosis for several reasons. It is usually diagnosed at an advanced stage, which is often due to the asymptomatic course of the disease or non-specific symptoms, the lack of sensitive and specific tumor markers, and difficult diagnosis by imaging methods in the early stages. Five-year survival, regardless of clinical stage, is between 7-9%. Resectable disease is diagnosed in only 10% of patients, in which the 5-year survival rate is 37 %, locally advanced unresectable disease is detected in about 30 % of patients with a 5-year survival of 12 %, and metastatic disease is found in about 60 % of patients, with a 5-year survival rate of only around 3 %. The poor prognosis of this disease is also due to the limited possibilities of screening and curative intervention for a short "lead time" in rapidly metastatic disease. Pancreatic cancer screening is not suitable for the non-selected population. On the contrary, it is important for individuals with a high risk of developing this disease. In these subjects, early diagnosis during screening demonstrated a higher number of curative resections and longer survival.