Nat Rev Gastroenterol Hepatol. 2019 Oct 7. doi: 10.1038/s41575-019-0221-z. [Epub ahead of print]
Bruno MJ.
Pancreatic cancer currently is the fourth leading cause of cancer-related death in Western societies and is soon projected to be the second leading cause, surpassing breast cancer and colon cancer1,2. It has a dismal 5-year survival rate of 8% in the USA and, at the time of diagnosis, only 9.7% of patients have local disease3. An updated systematic review and evidence report4 and a recommendation statement5 from the US Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) on screening for pancreatic cancer have been published in the journal JAMA, the conclusions of which are summarised in Box 1. The authors are to be commended for their effort but I caution for an even more humble interpretation of the evidence and urge avoiding scepticism and nihilism by making a passionate plea for intensifying research efforts to battle the grim statistics of pancreatic cancer.
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