← Return to Pancreatic Cancer Q&A with Dr. Stauffer, Mayo Surgeon: May 29

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@joiedevivre

After ⅔ of the pancreas was removed with good margins, if there is some sign of FDG uptake at the resected area, is it advisable to go in and cut more of the pancreas or remove the entire pancreas? There is no sign of spread anywhere else in recent PET scan and MRI but could the cancer be already in the blood? Chemo is ongoing from Feb 2024. Surgery was Dec 2023.

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Replies to "After ⅔ of the pancreas was removed with good margins, if there is some sign of..."

I have found PET to be imperfect when identifying recurrent cancer within the abdomen. There are many cases of nebulous results which can be due to inflammation, infection, or some other cause of hypermetabolism and not due to recurrent cancer. At MCF, we use very high-quality MRI to better detect whether there is recurrent PDAC or not but even then, it is not entirely accurate.