Abstract
The number of patients with pancreatic ductal cancer (PDC) is increasing, and there are now over 30,000 patients in Japan. The prognosis of pancreatic cancer is still poor, and the number of deaths due to hepatic cancer, has become the 4th cause of all cancers in Japan. Diagnosis of this disease with mass formation is easy by imaging modalities, ultrasound, endoscopic ultrasound, CT and MRI. But many mass formed PDCs are far advanced cancers with a poor prognosis. Patients with small PDC of less than 10 mm or in situ have longer survival. Risk factors for PDC are reported by Japan Pancreas Society. Our data of PDC's risk factors are diabetes mellitus (DM), and intra-ductal papillary mucinous neoplasm (IPMN). DM is seen in approximately 60% of cases of PDC, but the number of cases of diabetes exceeds 7 million and further narrowing is necessary. A large-scale examination is required taking into account age, biomarkers and imaging diagnosis.
