Update: Pancreatic carcinoma

The clinician is faced with several diagnostic tools. The algorithmic approach is useful in evaluating the patient with abdominal pain from pancreatic disease as well as cholestasis. Our current goal is to diagnose pancreatic cancer earlier when it is presumably more amenable to surgical resection and 'cure'. This will require identification of patients who are high risk for the development of pancreatic carcinoma, the development of screening procedures with high specificity and sensitivity and improvements in current diagnostic techniques. Until these become a reality, the clinician's high index of suspicion will remain essential to the early diagnosis of pancreatic carcinoma.