Artificial Intelligence > Unlocking AI’s Potential in Early Pancreatic Cancer Detection

Unlocking AI’s Potential in Early Pancreatic Cancer Detection

By Tehrene Firman

Pancreatic cancer is a silent threat, often going undetected until it’s too late. By the time symptoms appear and a diagnosis is made, the disease is usually in more advanced stages.

“It's the most deadly — the least survivable — of all cancers that we know of,” says Mark Truty, M.D., surgical oncologist at Mayo Clinic. “That's what makes it such an awful disease to deal with.”

But what if there was a way to catch it early, before it spreads and becomes harder to treat? Artificial intelligence (AI) is giving medical professionals a new edge in early detection of pancreatic cancer — and offering hope for patients who once had few options.

Mayo Clinic radiologist and nuclear medicine specialist Ajit Goenka, M.D., says it’s the responsibility of medical imaging experts to develop better detection methods and technology that can catch pancreatic cancer at its earliest possible stage.

“To be able to detect and identify disease at a stage where it is beyond the capabilities of human perception, that’s really the holy grail of medicine,” Dr. Goenka says.

AI’s Role in Early Pancreatic Cancer Detection

AI programming can help by pinpointing tumors with much higher resolution than the human eye.

“What AI is really good at is quantifying very subtle changes that happen on the images that human beings cannot pick up due to the inherent limitations of their eyesight,” Dr. Goenka says.

This ability to detect even the smallest variations in scans allows for faster and more accurate diagnoses, which can significantly improve patient outcomes.

“If you were to ask me right now to sit down on a state-of-the-art computer and try to segment the pancreas, it would take me anywhere from 20 to 30 minutes, and I might still not be accurate,” Dr. Goenka says. “In contrast, the AI models that we have trained can do that job in a fraction of a second. And not only that, they can do that for thousands of CT scans without requiring any kind of manual input.”

To be able to detect and identify disease at a stage where it is beyond the capabilities of human perception, that’s really the holy grail of medicine.
— Ajit Goenka, M.D.

AI’s ability to detect pancreatic cancer earlier than traditional methods offers a critical advantage. The earlier the cancer is identified, the sooner treatment can begin, which dramatically increases the chances of survival.

“What we have seen is that AI can help us diagnose pancreatic cancer almost a year before its clinical presentation,” Dr. Goenka says.

That head start can make a significant difference: According to the American Cancer Society’s Cancer Facts & Figures 2024 report, the five-year survival rate for pancreatic cancer is currently 13%. When detected early, confined to the pancreas and treated accordingly, the five-year survival rate increases to 44%.

The Future of AI and Cancer Care

By shifting the timeline of diagnosis, AI offers a chance to rewrite survival stories in pancreatic and other forms of cancer. According to Dr. Truty, patients whose survival was once measured in months or just a couple of years could go on to live "many years and hopefully decades,” he says — and, ultimately, reach a cure.

“There is definitely hope on the horizon,” Dr. Goenka says. “We just have to make the right kind of effort and use cutting-edge technologies like AI to make that dent in this disease.”

This research was supported by the Hoveida Family Foundation.