Published online May 15, 2015. doi: 10.4291/wjgp.v6.i2.29
Peer-review started: January 20, 2015
First decision: February 7, 2015
Revised: February 21, 2015
Accepted: March 16, 2015
Article in press: March 18, 2015
Published online: May 15, 2015
Pancreatic cystic neoplasms (PCNs) are a high prevalence disease. It is estimated that about 20% of the general population is affected by PCNs. Some of those lesions can progress till cancer, while others behave in a benign fashion. In particular intraductal papillary mucinous neoplasms of the pancreas can be considered as the pancreatic analogon to colonic polyps. Treatment of these precursor lesions at an early stage can potentially reduce pancreas cancer mortality and introduce a new “era” of preemptive pancreatic surgery. However, only few of those lesions have an aggressive behavior. The accuracy of preoperative diagnosis, i.e., the distinction between the various PCNs is around 60%, and the ability to predict the future outcome is also less accurate. For this reason, a significant number of patients are currently over-treated with an unnecessary, high-risk surgery. Furthermore, the majority of patients with PCN are on life-long follow-up with imaging modality, which has huge cost implications for the Health Care System for limited benefits considering that a significant proportion of PCNs are or behave like benign lesions. The current guidelines for the diagnosis and management of PCNs are more based on expert opinion than on evidence. For all those reasons, the management of cystic tumors of the pancreas remains a controversial area of pancreatology. On one hand, the detection of PCNs and the surgical treatment of pre-cancerous neoplasms can be considered a big opportunity to reduce pancreatic cancer related mortality. On the other hand, PCNs are associated with a considerable risk of under- or over- treatment of patients and incur high costs for the Health Care System.
Core tip: The present paper is an editorial focused on the critical problems regarding the management strategy of pancreatic cystic neoplasms (PCNs). Being a pre-cancerous condition in most of the cases, PCNs represent a unique opportunity to prevent pancreatic cancer and to develop preemptive pancreatic surgery programs. However, the lack of predictive factors of the behaviour of these lesions, the low accuracy of pre-operative diagnostics, and the limited knowledge regarding the natural history of those lesions, result in a substantial risk for under- and over-treatment of patients with PCN and represent a high cost factor for the Health Care organization. The paper underscores the critical importance of both the current management of PCNs and the need for future research.