Endoscopic Management of Pancreatic Neoplasms

Dear Colleagues,

The prevalence and incidence of pancreatic cancer are increasing, with it on track to soon become the second most frequent cause of cancer death in the world. Unfortunately, only 15% to 20% of pancreatic cancers at diagnosis are suitable for surgery and potential cure. Thus, the management of over 80% of patients with pancreatic cancer relies on chemo-radiotherapy, endoscopic treatment, and palliative care.

In the management of pancreatic cancer, the role of endoscopes is expanding from diagnosis to treatment. For example, endoscopic biliary stenting is still a major topic of discussion in malignant biliary obstruction during pancreatic cancer, since recurrent biliary obstruction or stent-related adverse events could create obstacles in the clinical course. Here, several new approaches for the management of biliary obstruction (e.g., new stents or EUS-guided biliary drainage) are presented.

This Special Issue aims to present up-to-date and recent advances that have been made in the field of endoscopy for pancreatic cancer or neoplasms.  More specifically, this Special Issue will cover the following topics:

• Endoscopic ultrasound (EUS) and related techniques in the diagnosis of pancreatic cancer;
• The role of EUS-guided tissue acquisition in the characterization of tumour behaviour and guiding therapy, including biomarker and genomic analyses, as well as creating organoids and xenografts for drug testing;
• EUS-guided radiation therapy, including intra-tumoural radioactive implantation;
• Endoscopic alleviation of biliary and duodenal obstruction due to pancreatic cancer;
• Endoscopic therapy for pancreatic cystic neoplasms;
• The role of EUS-guided techniques to further characterize pancreatic cystic neoplasms;
• Endoscopic therapy for pancreatic neuroendocrine tumours;
• Future endoscopic treatment of pancreatic cancer.

In this Special Issue, we aims to collect evidence of the efficacy and safety of endoscopic procedures, such as cutting-edge approaches, large-scale comparisons, and review articles of specific topics in the management of pancreatic cancer.

We believe that the content of this Special Issue will not only consolidate our current knowledge in the field but will also stimulate further innovation and research in endoscopic techniques to deliver targeted therapy. In combination with the advances in systemic chemotherapy, such improvements in endoscopic therapies for pancreatic cancer will result in better outcomes.

Dr. Nam Quoc Nguyen
Dr. Takuji Iwashita
Guest Editors

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• pancreatic cancer
• pancreatic neoplasm
• endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography
• endoscopic ultrasound
• fine needle aspiration/biopsy
• local treatment
• biliary stent
• biliary drainage
• contrast-enhanced