Solid pancreatic masses: benign or malignant.

Solid masses in the pancreas mostly occur in the pancreatic head and may be related to inflammation due to chronic pancreatitis or may be caused by malignancy. Ductal pancreatic carcinoma is the most common malignant pancreatic neoplasm, accounting for more than 90% of malignant solid pancreatic tumours. Endocrine tumours represent only a minority of those tumours. While endocrine tumours tend to exhibit symptoms earlier in the course of the disease (due to tumour-related hormone production), adenocarcinomas present in nearly all cases in advanced stages when curative resection is not feasible.