Should routine ct's be done of the pancreas to try and catch cancer early, or is the cancer too rare?

No: Usually ct scan cannot see a pancreatic tumor or cancer until it is relatively large. Ct scans do not always see pancreas lesions very well, unfortunately. Pancreas lesions do not cause much symptoms until they become larger, too. There have been some uses of endoscopic (internal) ultrasound to look at the pancreas, and rarely endoscopic pancreatic duct cell sampling.

No: Pancreatic cancers tend to grow quite quickly (for the most common type). Therefore, routine "random" screening with imaging studies are not likely to detect the cancer early enough (it would be about 1 cm). With 12.0 per 100, 000 men and women per year screening by this method is not cost effect.

Too rare: Doing screening ct examinations for pancreatic cancer is not reasonable. The incident of pancreatic cancer is too low to expose people to the radiation of a ct scan as a screening tool. The yield would also be very low.