Miroslav Zavoral, Cyril Šálek
In spite of progress in molecular genetics and imaging methods, pancreatic cancer (PC) remains a huge problem of current medicine. Its prognosis remains poor, mainly because of its asymptomatic course in early stages. The incidence of PC is still growing and only slightly surpasses its mortality. Presently, PC is considered to be a genetic disease. Gene mutations were identified already in its premalignant stages. This fact – together with a higher accessibility of special imaging a diagnostic methods (eg. EUS and FNAB) – promises that PC might become diagnosed in earlier, yet resectable stages in the near future.
Keywords: pancreatic cancer, mutation, diagnosis, radical therapy, symptomatic therapy, palliative therapy