Overview and comparison of guidelines for management of pancreatic cystic neoplasms

Abstract

Pancreatic cysts are identified at an increasing frequency. Although mucinous cystic neoplasms represent a pre-malignant condition, the majority of these lesions do not progress to cancer. Over the last 10 years several societies have established guidelines for the diagnosis, initial evaluation and surveillance of these lesions. Here we provide an overview of five commonly used guidelines: 2015 American Gastroenterological Association, 2017 International Association of Pancreatology, American College of Gastroenterology 2018, European Study Group and American College of Radiology. We describe the similarities and differences between the methods used to formulate these guidelines, the population they target and their approaches towards initial evaluation and surveillance of cystic lesions.

Keywords: Cyst malignancy; Guidelines; Pancreatic cyst surveillance.

Figure 1

Target populations. Although there is significant overlap between the guidelines this graph shows how the guidelines differ in the population they evaluate and make recommendations for. ACG: American College of Gastroenterology; AGA: American Gastroenterological Association.