Biopsy for pancreatic cancer

Endoscopic ultrasound combines an ultrasound scan and ​endoscopy​ . It’s also called an endoluminal ultrasound or EUS.

Your doctor or specialist nurse (endoscopist) does the test. They pass a flexible tube called an endoscope into your mouth and down your throat into the stomach. At the end of the endoscope is a small ultrasound probe. The ultrasound picture helps your doctor to see any areas that might be cancer. They can then guide a small needle into these areas to take the biopsy.

ERCP stands for endoscopic retrograde cholangio pancreatography. It uses an endoscopy and x-rays to show detailed pictures of the pancreas, bile ducts, and gallbladder.

Your doctor uses a long flexible tube called an endoscope that has a small camera and light at the end. They pass the tube through your mouth and then down your throat, food pipe, stomach and into the first part of your small bowel.

Your doctor can see if there are any growths or other abnormal looking areas in the pancreas or gallbladder and can take biopsies.

You might have a cholangioscopy at the same time as an ERCP. Your doctor puts a smaller tube down a channel in the endoscope. This smaller tube (cholangioscope) has a probe and camera attached. It can go directly into the bile ducts. Your doctor can take samples of any abnormal looking areas.

Find out more about having an ERCP

This way of taking a biopsy is useful for cancer that has spread to nearby parts of the body such as the liver or ​peritoneum​ . 

Your doctor can use an ultrasound or CT scan to see exactly where the tumour or tumours are. You have a ​local anaesthetic​ injection in the skin over the area so that it goes numb. Your doctor then puts a fine needle through the skin and into the tumour. They can take out a small piece of tissue.

You feel pressure when the needle goes in, but it shouldn't be painful because of the local anaesthetic.

Find out about having a CT scan or ultrasound

A laparoscopy is a small operation to look inside the tummy (abdomen). A laparoscopy involves your surgeon making several small cuts (incisions) instead of a large incision across your abdomen. This is also known as keyhole surgery or minimally invasive surgery.

You have this while your asleep, so you have a general anaesthetic. Your doctor passes a thin tube with a light and camera (laparoscope) through the incisions. They also insert some gas into your abdomen so they can see the organs more clearly.

There are several tools that your surgeon might use and this will depend on what your surgeons sees. So for example they may use an ultrasound probe to look at the deeper layers of the tissue inside your abdomen. Your surgeon can also take biopsies and fluid to send to the laboratory to check for cancer cells if they see any abnormal areas.

After this test is over, you have stitches or Steri-Strips holding the wounds closed. The cuts heal within a week or so.

Find out about having a laparoscopy

A laparotomy is when your surgeon makes a cut in the skin of your tummy (abdomen) to take a tissue sample from the pancreas.

Today this is rare, and you are more likely to have a laparoscopy because it is a much smaller operation. You usually have to stay in hospital for a few days after a laparotomy.

Some surgeons send the biopsy to the laboratory while you are still under anaesthetic. If the laboratory confirms that you have pancreatic cancer your surgeon might carry on and remove the cancer.

More information on surgery for pancreatic cancer