Review
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2015. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastrointest Endosc. Apr 16, 2015; 7(4): 318-327
Published online Apr 16, 2015. doi: 10.4253/wjge.v7.i4.318
Endoscopic ultrasound in the evaluation of pancreatic neoplasms-solid and cystic: A review
Eric M Nelsen, Darya Buehler, Anurag V Soni, Deepak V Gopal
Eric M Nelsen, Anurag V Soni, Deepak V Gopal, Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, University of Wisconsin - School of Medicine and Public Health, Madison, WI 53705, United States
Darya Buehler, Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, University of Wisconsin - School of Medicine and Public Health, Madison, WI 53705, United States
Author contributions: Nelsen EM contributed to drafting of manuscript, review of literature and review of final manuscript; Buehler D contributed to drafting of manuscript, preparation and review of pathology; Soni AV contributed to drafting of manuscript and review of final manuscript; Gopal DV contributed to coordinator of manuscript, drafting of manuscript and approval of final manuscript.
Conflict-of-interest: Authors have no conflicts of interest.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Deepak V Gopal, MD, FRCP(C), AGAF, FACG, FASGE, Professor of Medicine, Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, University of Wisconsin - School of Medicine and Public Health, 1685 Highland Avenue, Madison, WI 53705, United States. dvg@medicine.wisc.edu
Telephone: +1-608-2637322
Received: September 13, 2014
Peer-review started: September 13, 2014
First decision: September 28, 2014
Revised: October 31, 2014
Accepted: January 18, 2015
Article in press: January 20, 2015
Published online: April 16, 2015
Core Tip

Core tip: Endoscopic ultrasound-fine needle aspiration (EUS-FNA) is a common, reliable way of obtaining tissue from within the abdominal cavity. This review details the current evidence of optimizing EUS-FNA results for pancreatic lesions, specifically adenocarcinoma. EUS and cytology from rare pancreatic lesions are highlighted to demonstrate the wide variety of pancreatic lesions and the importance of cytopathology. Also covered are cystic lesions and the ability of EUS-FNA to differentiate cysts based on EUS appearance and aspiration analysis including new DNA analysis and measurement of k-ras mutation.