How new technologies could impact on radiology diagnosis and assessment of pancreatic lesions: future perspectives

Advances in cross-sectional imaging technology have made a detailed assessment of pancreatic gland possible, despite the deep anatomical location. Although many focal solid lesions are incidentally detected during an abdominal ultrasound, their characterization is still an important diagnostic issue. In fact, despite the availability of computed tomography (CT), magnetic resonance (MR), and positron emission tomography (PET), differential diagnosis between benign, precancerous, or cancerous lesions still has some degree of uncertainty. According to a recent Cochrane meta-analysis, none of these modalities has significantly higher sensitivity and specificity than the others.[1] Thus, for correct characterization, patients are often referred to EUS with fine‐needle aspiration, which, unfortunately, is not widely available.