Departments and specialties

Mayo Clinic has one of the largest and most experienced practices in the United States, with campuses in Arizona, Florida and Minnesota. Staff skilled in dozens of specialties work together to ensure quality care and successful recovery.

Research

Mayo Clinic doctors and scientists are dedicated to improving the care of people with pancreatic cancer.

Researchers in Mayo Clinic's Gastrointestinal Cancer Program study new diagnostic tools, treatments and approaches to prevention of pancreatic cancer. They are advancing scientific knowledge of cancers affecting the intestinal tract and improving the quality of life of people affected by these diseases.

Areas of research include:

  • Proving radiation treatment can be an important addition to surgery associated with a lower risk of cancer recurrence.
  • Refining guidelines to identify people with a higher risk of pancreatic cancer.
  • Exploring the potential of new immunotherapies.
  • Using advanced imaging techniques to help predict whether pancreatic cysts, a common, usually harmless condition, will develop cancer.
  • Evaluating whether people with a rare type of pancreatic cancer would benefit from surgery.
  • Understanding what causes pancreatic cancer, which is the key to finding new cancer therapies.

Mayo Clinic is also active in a large multisite study funded by the U.S. National Cancer Institute that's looking into the genetics of pancreatic cancer. The gastrointestinal genetic epidemiology research laboratory has organized the Pancreatic Cancer Genetic Epidemiology (PACGENE) Consortium to investigate the role that heredity plays in pancreatic cancer. To aid this research, Mayo Clinic has created one of the largest patient and tissue registries for pancreatic cancer in the United States.

Publications

See a list of publications about pancreatic cancer by Mayo Clinic doctors on PubMed, a service of the National Library of Medicine.