Recent advancements in surgical and anti-cancer therapies have provided significant hope of long survival in patients with pancreatic cancer (PC). To realize this hope, routine medical checkups of asymptomatic people should be performed to identify operable PCs. In this study, we evaluated the efficacy of medical checkups using abdominal ultrasonography (US). We retrospectively analyzed 374 patients with PC at our institute between 2010 and 2021. We divided these patients into several groups according to the diagnostic approach and compared their background and prognosis. These groups comprised PCs diagnosed through (a) symptoms, 242 cases; (b) US during medical checkup for asymptomatic individuals, 17; and other means. Of the 374 patients, 192 were men (51.3%), and the median age was 74 years (34−105). Tumors were located in the pancreatic tail in 67 patients (17.9%). Excision ratio and 5-year survival rate were significantly better in group (b) than in (a) (58.8% vs. 23.1%, p < 0.01 and 42.2% vs. 9.4%, p < 0.001, respectively). The prognosis of patients diagnosed using US during medical checkup was better than that of patients identified through symptomatic presentation of PC. US for asymptomatic individuals with PC might be one of the useful modalities for promoting better prognosis of PCs.
Keywords: 5-year survival; abdominal ultrasonography (US); cancer screening; medical checkup; pancreatic cancer (PC); prognosis; surveillance.