When should endoscopic screening begin for patients at increased risk for pancreatic neoplasia?
- No standardized recommendations are available for the endoscopic screening of individuals at high risk for pancreatic cancer.
- Small clinical studies have suggested some benefit with endoscopic screening with EUS for individuals with genetic syndromes associated with pancreatic cancer beginning at the age of 30.
- First-degree relatives of patients diagnosed with pancreatic cancer should begin endoscopic screening with EUS around the age of 40, or 10 years younger than the earliest age of pancreatic cancer development.
- Smokers should be screened at an earlier age because smoking decreases the age of onset for familial pancreatic cancer by 10 to 20 years.