Inflammation and Carcinogenesis in the Pancreas and Biliary Tract: Mechanisms and Practice

Among the diseases treated by gastroenterologists, those involving the pancreas and the biliary tract are often the most challenging. However, recent advances in our knowledge of disease mechanisms, new diagnostic modalities, and progress in describing the natural history of disease have led to the promise of new and more successful treatments. This is true of inflammatory as well as neoplastic processes that involve the pancreas and biliary tract. In May 2009, scientists and clinical investigators representing the Japanese Society of Gastroenterology and the American Gastroenterology Association met in Sapporo, Japan, to present and discuss their work at the Inflammation and Carcinogenesis in the Pancreas and Biliary Tract: Mechanism and Practice symposium. In this supplement to Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology, we provide summaries of presentations that ranged from molecular pathology to studies of anatomic variations that cause disease and new imaging modalities that help to discriminate between benign and malignant processes. The following comments summarize some of the highlights included in this supplement.