The Role of Positron Emission Tomography in the Management of Pancreatic Cancer
Section snippets
Clinical Features
Symptoms of pancreatic malignancy often are nonspecific and tend to be ignored by both patient and doctor. Consequently, patients usually present with late-stage disease. Painless jaundice with an associated weight loss is the principal clinical feature that prompts further investigation. In more than 80% of patients, abdominal pain is a late presenting symptom, which is commonly epigastric and diffuse.4
Physical signs of pancreatic cancer include abdominal mass, palpable gall bladder
Hematological and Biochemical Parameters
Laboratory findings in pancreatic cancer are nonspecific. Anemia and hypoalbuminemia represent the chronic nature of the condition, and a global derangement of liver enzymes commonly is observed with obstructive jaundice. Malabsorbtion of fat-soluble vitamins because of prolonged biliary obstruction also results in abnormalities of vitamin K-dependent clotting factors. Pancreatic duct obstruction may result in pancreatic atrophy and subsequent impaired glucose tolerance or frank diabetes in as
Positron Emission Tomography (PET)
Anatomical imaging modalities outlined in previous sections, have formed the corner stone of diagnosis and staging of pancreatic cancer. However, many challenges still remain, which include the definitive diagnosis of small tumors and differentiating malignant and benign inflammatory lesions (eg, caused by mass-forming chronic pancreatitis or secondary to posttreatment fibrosis). The emergence of PET technology has therefore set out to address some of these limitations.
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