Pancreatic Cystic Lesions: Next Generation of Radiologic Assessment

Abstract

Pancreatic cystic lesions are frequently identified on cross-sectional imaging. As many of these are presumed branch-duct intraductal papillary mucinous neoplasms, these lesions generate much anxiety for the patients and clinicians, often necessitating long-term follow-up imaging and even unnecessary surgical resections. However, the incidence of pancreatic cancer is overall low for patients with incidental pancreatic cystic lesions. Radiomics and deep learning are advanced tools of imaging analysis that have attracted much attention in addressing this unmet need, however, current publications on this topic show limited success and large-scale research is needed.

Keywords: Deep learning; Intraductal papillary mucinous neoplasms (IPMN); Machine learning; Pancreatic cystic lesions; Pancreatic cystic neoplasms; Radiomics.