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Dr. J. Edward Berk, Philadelphia
: Despite the incentive for early diagnosis of carcinoma of the pancreas, recognition of the disease continues to be retarded. Unfortunately, the pancreas is not easily accessible, and there are no means whereby it can be visualized roentgenologically. Moreover, all the current methods of studying the pancreas and its function do not allow for the diagnosis of carcinoma to the exclusion of all other lesions.Data in the literature pertaining to clinical manifestations of carcinoma of the pancreas are based largely on cases in which the cancer was well advanced. These observations have tended to fix in our minds the late manifestations. Furthermore, in many of the reported cases the diagnosis was established solely by the findings at operation. The shortcomings of such unconfirmed surgical observations are obvious, especially when they are used to differentiate the clinical manifestations of pancreatic cancer