GAT NEWS & ACTIVITIES

WGO has announced the release of the new Pancreatic Cystic Lesions Guideline.  This Guideline is chaired by Prof. Juan Malagelada of the University Hospital Vall D'Hebron in Barcelona, Spain and Dr. Nalini Guda of GI Associates in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA.

 

Prof. Malagelada stated that, "This guideline aims at providing physicians worldwide with a reasonable, up-to-date approach in the management of pancreatic cystic lesions. Since pertinent diagnostic and therapeutic resources are not uniformly available in different areas of the world, these guidelines are meant to be used as appropriate keeping in mind the local resources and patient preferences."

 

“Pancreatic cystic lesions” is a conventional term that refers to a well-defined lesion of the pancreas that contains fluid. Most small lesions are detected incidentally when scanning is performed for evaluation of a non-pancreas related indication or symptoms. The etiology of pancreatic cysts is variable; they may be inflammatory, post-traumatic, or have no known etiology. While most small lesions are benign, some lesions can lead to malignancy and hence the need for further workup, surveillance and management decisions. It is, thus, necessary to obtain a good history and assess the nature of the lesion by appropriate investigations as needed to assess the risk for malignant progression. Since potentially malignant lesions cannot be distinguished reliably from benign lesions on clinical and morphological features alone, further evaluation and/or surveillance may be necessary.

 

The Guideline was created with the global view of many Guideline Review Team members, which in addition to Prof. Malagelada and Dr. Guda, include: Khean-Lee Goh (Malaysia), Thilo Hackert (Germany), Peter Layer (Germany), Xavier Molero (Spain), Stephen Pandol (USA), Masao Tanaka (Japan), Muhammed Umar (Pakistan) and Anton LeMair (Netherlands).  The guideline and can be accessed athttp://www.worldgastroenterology.org/guidelines/global-guidelines/pancreatic-cystic-lesions.

We encourage your society to consider alerting your members about the Guideline through emails, your website and newsletters.  WGO is also promoting the Guideline through our social media platforms, so please feel free to retweet our Twitter posts and “like” our posts on Facebook (http://www.worldgastroenterology.org/about-wgo/media-center/social-media).