Multicenter retrospective cohort study of pancreatic cancer risk in patients with low-risk pancreatic cystic lesions

The association of low-risk pancreatic cystic lesions (PCLs) with pancreatic cancer risk is not clear. A multicenter retrospective cohort study investigated the long-term incidence of pancreatic cancer among patients with low-risk PCLs. In this cohort study of 6064 low-risk PCL patients who were followed-up for 20 145 person-years, pancreatic cancer incidence was 1.89 cases per 1000 person-years, approximately 14-fold higher than the general population rate. Approximately one-third of cancers arose outside of the cyst site; 26.3% occurred more than 5 years after PCL detection. The authors conclude that low-risk PCLs carry a nonnegligible long-term risk of cancer, supporting the need for personalized surveillance strategies. Given that more than a quarter of pancreatic cancers were diagnosed beyond 5 years of follow-up, longer than a 5-year follow-up of low-risk PCLs may be needed.