An update on surgical staging of patients with pancreatic cancer.

Accurate staging of pancreatic adenocarcinoma is a crucial step in determining the appropriate therapeutic approach to pancreatic cancer and to maximizing life expectancy. Despite the availability of high-quality abdominal imaging, the use of multi-modality imaging and of diagnostic laparoscopy, a portion of surgically explored patients fail to undergo resection secondary to metastatic disease. This review is an update from the 2012 American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Gastrointestinal Cancers Symposium of new developments in the staging of localized pancreatic adenocarcinoma. (Abstracts #168, #177, and #212).