ABSTRACT
Introduction ............................................................................................................................. 70 Diagnostic L aparoscopy ........................................................................................................ 71 Conclusions.............................................................................................................................. 73
INTRODUCTION
Pancreatic cancer has the worst prognosis of all gastrointestinal malignancies. According to the National Cancer Institute, only 3% of all patients will be alive five years after diagnosis. Preoperative staging is therefore mandatory in order to carefully select those few patients who may be operated with a likelihood o f cure12 and accurate staging will allow selection o f patients for palliative treatment with out the need for an exploratory laparotomy.
