The Role of Endoscopic Ultrasound in Early Detection of Pancreatic Cancer

Pancreatic cancer was the 9th most common cancer in Korea in 2016, and the incidence is on the rise. Despite advances in diagnostic and therapeutic methods, 5-year survival rate of pancreatic cancer is about 11.7% in Korea, and its prognosis is very poor compared to other cancers. At present, although complete surgical resection is the most effective treatment, only less than 20% of patients are even candidates for resection because diagnosis is usually delayed. So early detection of pancreatic cancer is one of the main objective in the treatment of pancreatic cancer. Among imaging modalities, computed tomography-scan is the most widely available, and the most frequently used. However as endoscopic ultrasound (EUS) techniques have evolved and based on the results of researches that EUS is superior to computed tomography-scan in the diagnosis of small pancreatic tumor, the role of EUS in the early diagnosis of pancreatic cancer is attracting attention. Herein, the authors focused on the role of EUS in early pancreatic cancer.