Preoperative tissue diagnosis for tumours of the pancreas

Preoperative biopsy of pancreatic lesions suspected of malignancy is controversial.A systematic Medline literature search was carried out. Diagnostic studies reporting quantitative preoperative pancreatic biopsy data were evaluated.The analysis included 53 studies, mostly of a retrospective nature. Despite acceptable rates for sensitivity and specificity, the negative predictive value of percutaneous and endoscopic ultrasonography-guided...