Finding pancreatic cancer early is key

November is National Pancreatic Cancer Awareness Month.

Approximately 66,000 people in the U.S. will be diagnosed with pancreatic cancer this year, according to the National Cancer Institute.

Dr. Michael Wallace, a gastroenterologist at Mayo Clinic, warns that early signs of this deadly disease are easy to miss.

Pancreatic cancer is the third-leading cause of cancer-related deaths in the United States.

“Our best way of finding a disease at a curable stage is to find it early,” Wallace said.

Patients with a family history of pancreatic disease are at the greatest risk and should be screened annually with an MRI or an endoscopic ultrasound.

“If we see something abnormal, we can actually take a biopsy directly of it, and that’s a very, very safe procedure,” Wallace said.

Artificial intelligence also is helping doctors at Mayo Clinic detect the disease earlier.

“We now have very good ways — including some recent advances in artificial intelligence, enhancement of CT and MRI images — that can allow us to tell which of these are likely to turn cancerous,” Wallace said. “And those individuals, we can actually remove the cyst, even before it becomes malignant, and essentially prevent the disease.”