Objectives: This study aimed to evaluate the utility of endoscopic ultrasonography screening for small pancreatic cancer (PC) and propose a new simple scoring system for selecting individuals who should be screened.
Methods: Risk factors or symptoms related to PC were tentatively divided into high- and low-grade risk groups based mainly on reported relative risk values. Numbers of risk factors were designated as risk scores. Endoscopic ultrasonography screening was performed for 632 individuals. We analyzed scores for PC detection prospectively, and risk factors and scores of PC patients retrospectively.
Results: We detected 10 small malignant pancreatic neoplasms (size ≤20 mm; 8 PCs; 9 Tis or T1) and 14 advanced PCs. All small PCs and 95.5% of PCs were found in individuals with low-grade risk scores of at least 3 points (P) or high-grade risk scores of at least 1P. Both average risk scores were significantly higher in patients with small PCs (P ≤ 0.04). Cutoffs for low- and high-grade risk scores implying the presence of small PC and all PC were 3P and 1P, respectively. When subjects having one or both cutoff scores were screened, sensitivity and specificity were 100% and 64.4% for small PCs and 95.5% and 64.4% for all PCs.
Conclusion: Endoscopic ultrasonography screening combining new scoring is effective for detecting small PC.