Validation of the American Gastroenterological Association guidelines on management of intraductal papillary mucinous neoplasms: more than 5 years of follow-up

Recent guidelines suggest that imaging surveillance be conducted for 5 years for patients with at most one high-risk feature. If there were no significant changes, surveillance is stopped. We sought to validate this follow-up strategy. In study 1, data were analysed for 392 patients with intraductal papillary mucinous neoplasms (IPMNs) and at most one high-risk feature who were periodically followed up for more than 1 year with imaging tests. In study 2, data were analysed for 159 IPMN patients without worsening high-risk features after 5 years (stop surveillance group). In study 1, pancreatic cancer (PC) was identified in 12 patients (27.3%) in the endoscopic ultrasound-guided fine needle aspiration (EUS-FNA) indication group and none in the non-EUS-FNA indication group (P