- Benign appearing PANCREATIC TUMORS (mass or cysts) found on imaging scans often turn out to be malignant cancer.
This is according to a study published in the September issue of Journal of the American College of Surgeons.

· Pancreatic tumors and cysts that appear benign and are not associated with pancreatic symptoms are often called “incidentaloma“. The intent of this name is that it is an incidental finding and not believed to be significant (cancer).
Researchers studied 475 cases of pancreatic surgery from 1995 until 2007.
They identified whether an “incidentaloma” was identified at some time prior to the diagnosis of pancreatic cancer.
The authors found 64 cases of pancreatic cancer in patients who previously were diagnosed with a benign appearing pancreatic mass or cyst (incidentaloma). This was 13.5% of the cases of pancreatic cancer.

This is a very important report. Imaging studies such as CT scans (CAT scans) and ultrasounds are increasingly used to evaluate patients with abdominal pain.
The “incidentaloma” finding is increasingly used to describe some pancreatic findings. Given that some of these are ultimately turning out to be cancer, we should be very careful in their workup. We should more aggressively study and follow these incidentalomas and not just discount them as always benign and not cancerous.

Cristopher Geiler, M.D.
Reference
Journal of the American College of Surgeons