The goal of any cancer screening is to find the disease early. But screening for pancreatic cancer is not like screening for breast or colon cancer. Pancreatic cancer often grows without signs or symptoms until it’s advanced. There are no tests to find pancreas cancer early. This is why screening is only for people at high risk.
Who should consider being screened for pancreatic cancer?
Screening is most helpful if you have a high risk of pancreatic cancer.
Your risk may be higher if you have:
- A family history of pancreatic cancer. This means 2 or more close blood relatives — such as a parent, sibling, or child — have had pancreatic cancer. These are called first-degree relatives. They are related to you by birth, not by marriage or adoption.
- A gene change (called mutation or variant) or an inherited condition. Some people have changes in their genes that can raise their risk for pancreatic cancer. These changes may be part of a condition passed down in families, called hereditary cancer syndromes.
- Both of these.
How does pancreatic cancer screening work?
Pancreatic cancer often starts in the ducts: tiny tubes that carry digestive juices to the intestines. With active monitoring, you get regular scans, blood tests, and check-ins with your care team. If they see any changes, they’ll help you plan the next steps right away. Active monitoring is a form of treatment. It’s not the same as having no treatment.
Why choose MSK for pancreatic screening and active monitoring
At MSK:
- We offer a screening program for people at higher risk for pancreatic cancer.
- Our team of pancreatic cancer experts is one of the largest in the country.
- We care for more people with pancreatic cancer than most hospitals in New York and across the country.
- We’re a leader in pancreatic cancer care and research.
MSK is also recognized as a National Pancreas Foundation Center of Excellence. This means:
- Our doctors meet high national standards for pancreatic cancer care.
- We offer support services, such as help with pain and symptoms, counseling, nutrition, integrative medicine, rehabilitation, prehabilitation, and more.
- We lead clinical trials to test new ways of treating pancreatic cancer.
Your genetic risk for pancreatic cancer
At MSK, we use a multi-gene panel test to look for gene changes linked to hereditary pancreatic cancer. This test uses a saliva or blood sample to check for gene changes. It can test 1 gene at a time or many genes at once. But testing many genes at the same time can help us find inherited causes of pancreatic cancer more quickly.
If you have a change in the BRCA2 gene, you may be more likely to get pancreatic cancer. This change is part of a condition called Hereditary Breast and Ovarian Cancer (HBOC) syndrome. HBOC can sometimes raise your risk for pancreatic cancer.
Changes in other genes, such as the PALB2 gene and the ATM gene can raise your risk for pancreatic cancer. But these changes are less common.
Changes in other genes can also raise your risk for pancreatic cancer. They include STK11, CKDN2A/pp16, MLH1, MSH2, MSH6, PMS2, PRSS1, SPINK1, and TP53.
About MSK’s Pancreatic Cancer Screening and Risk Evaluation Program
MSK’s Pancreatic Cancer Screening and Risk Evaluation Program is part of a research study. This means we use health data (without names) to help make screening better for others.
Learn more about our screening and risk evaluation program to see if it’s right for you.
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