RESUMO
INTRODUCTION: Imaging has a decisive role in the diagnosis and staging of pancreatic cancer, the most used imaging methods being computed tomography, magnetic resonance imaging and endoscopic ultrasonography. MATERIAL AND METHOD: They were studied retrospectively over a 3 years period, 140 patients with pancreatic cancer. AIM OF THE STUDY: This study aims to determine the effectiveness of CT, MRI and EUS in diagnosis and staging of panceatic cancer. RESULTS: CT showed a diagnostic accuracy of 83.3%, with sensitivity and specificity of 81.4% and 43% respectively. MRI showed superior diagnostic accuracy compared to CT (89,1%). However, EUS demonstrated the best diagnostic value in PC (accuracy of 92,7%). Concerning the locoregional staging, the 3 diagnostic methods showed similar result. There were no significant differences concerning the diagnosis of intra-abdominal metastases. Differences have appeared in the case of extra-abdominal. Thus, there were 4 cases of lung metastases which have been identified only on CT and MRI. CONCLUSION: EUS is the most effective technique used in the diagnosis of pancreatic cancer, the present study demonstrating an accuracy of 92.7%. Moreover, EUS offers the possibility to collect samples for cytological examination by EUS guided fine needle aspiration. However, there are some limitations of EUS in identifying extra-abdominal metastases. Thus, the assessment of tumor extension must be completing by performing CT or MRI.
