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Pancreatic cysts often are found incidentally on abdominal imaging for nonpancreatic indications. Because some pancreatic cysts (e.g., mucinous cystic neoplasms, intraductal papillary mucinous neoplasms) have malignant potential, their management depends in part on the likelihood of malignant transformation. In this study, researchers drew from several sources to derive a rough estimate of malignant transformation rates.
From two large abdominal computed tomography and magnetic resonance imaging studies, the researchers estimated that 2.5% of adults harbor pancreatic cysts (range, 1% for people in their 40s to 9% for people in their 80s); extrapolating to the general population, about 3.5 million older U.S. adults (age range, 40–85) presumab…