Early detection of pancreatic carcinoma

To improve the dismal prognosis of patients with pancreatic adenocarcinoma, the disease needs to be diagnosed at an earlier and hopefully more curable stage. Individuals at high risk for developing pancreatic cancer, such as those with a history of familial pancreatic cancer, would greatly benefit from efficient early detection programs. Currently, screening methods consist of imaging techniques and serum CA19-9 levels, which are not optimal for the detection of small pancreatic lesions. The understanding of genetic alterations, in combination with the development of high-throughput sensitive techniques, such as gene expression profiling and proteomics, will hopefully lead to the rapid discovery of a panel of biomarkers that will save lives by enabling aggressive therapy at the time when tumors are curable.