Risk Score Helps Predict Pancreatic Cancer Recurrence, Study Says

Key TakeawaysA new risk score can help predict whether a pancreatic cancer survivor will suffer a recurrence of cancerThe 13-point risk score can help doctors more closely monitor patients at higher riskAbout 10% of patients suffer a cancer recurrence, most often in their liver.FRIDAY, Dec. 19, 2025 (HealthDay News) — A new risk score can help predict which pancreatic cancer survivors are more likely to suffer a recurrence of their cancer, researchers said.The score could help better manage the follow-up care for patients who’ve had pancreatic tumors surgically removed, and whose cancers have not spread to their lymph nodes, researchers wrote Dec. 17 in JAMA Surgery.“We now have a way to identify patients whose higher risk of recurrence may have been previously overlooked,” senior researcher Dr. Cristina Ferrone, chair of surgery at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, said in a news release. “This gives us the opportunity to change the way we care for this patient population in a meaningful way.”The score helps people with pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors, which are a less common and typically less aggressive form of pancreatic cancer.Patients whose cancer has not spread outside the pancreas, to either the lymph nodes or surrounding organs, have a 91% five-year survival rate following surgery, researchers said in background notes.For the new study, researchers analyzed data from 770 pancreatic cancer patients across five major hospitals.Results showed about 10% of patients whose cancer hasn’t spread to the lymph nodes will nonetheless experience a recurrence of the cancer, most often in their liver.With this data, researchers developed a 13-point risk score that relies on four key factors that increase the odds of recurrence:Male sexA tumor size of 3 centimeters or largerA cancer grade of 2 or higherInvasion of cancer cells into the bloodstream or lymphatic fluidThis score will allow doctors to place patients into low-, moderate- and high-risk groups, and then monitor their progress accordingly.“The current guidelines leave clinicians with a ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach, but it’s clear from our research that not all patients require the same intensity of surveillance,” Ferrone said. “The results address a critical gap in current practice and will hopefully influence future guideline development for well-managed, individualized and cost-effective care.”More informationThe American Cancer Society has more on pancreatic cancer.SOURCE: Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, news release, Dec. 17, 2025 .What This Means For YouA new risk score might help doctors better track the progress of pancreatic cancer survivors..Sign up for our weekly HealthDay newsletter