Radiology Rounds - Cystic Pancreatic Lesions

As cross-sectional imaging has become more common, there has been a marked increase in the incidental detection of cystic pancreatic lesions. It is estimated that more than a third of these are found in asymptomatic patients. Although knowledge of the natural history of cystic lesions is incomplete at this time, it is known that some cystic pancreatic lesions, including pseudocysts and serous cystadenomas, have an extremely low potential for malignancy while most mucin producing cystic lesions have malignant potential. However, in general, the prognosis for cystic neoplasms is better than pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma.