Aktueller stand der bildgebenden diagnostik des pankreaskarzinoms

Pancreatic cancer is the 4th-5th leading cause of cancer-related death in the western world. Overall the prognosis of patients with pancreatic cancer is dismal with a 5-year survival rate of less than 5%. At the time of diagnosis about 80% of pancreatic tumors are non-resectable. In most cases biphasic contrast-enhanced multi-slice CT (MSCT) is the imaging modality of choice in the diagnosticsof patients with pancreatic cancer as most questions relevant for the clinician, such as local tumor extent and invasion of peripancreatic vessels, can be answered with a high degree of accuracy. However, in cases with equivocal CT findings (e.g. isodense tumor) MR imaging can be applied for the detection of small tumors or for the characterization of cystic lesions. This article provides an overview on typical imaging findings of pancreatic tumors, discusses the radiologic staging of adenocarcinomas of the pancreas and alludes to recent developments in MR imaging such as diffusion-weighted imaging.