Answer three quick questions to check your risk and find out if you and your family may benefit from regular monitoring.
If you think you might have a family history of pancreatic cancer, talk to your doctor, especially if you have any worrying symptoms.
Give your doctor as much information as possible about any pancreatic cancer or family cancer syndromes in your family. Ask whether you should be referred:
Screening aims to identify people who will get a disease before they get any symptoms. The aim is to pick up cancers early, which means treatment may be more successful. At the moment there is no screening programme in the UK for pancreatic cancer because there isn’t a test for pancreatic cancer that is reliable and accurate enough. But NICE guidelines do recommend monitoring for people at higher risk of pancreatic cancer because of a family history.
People with a family history may be able to take part in the EUROPAC study. This study monitors people with a family history of pancreatic cancer (pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma). It also monitors people with hereditary pancreatitis. Monitoring aims to pick up any changes to the pancreas as early as possible.
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guidelines for pancreatic cancer recommend that monitoring for pancreatic cancer should be offered to people with:
NICE also recommends that monitoring for pancreatic cancer should be considered for people with:
Monitoring means having regular MRI/MRCP (magnetic resonance cholangio-pancreatography) or EUS (endoscopic ultrasound) scans. People with hereditary pancreatitis should be offered CT scans rather than MRI/MRCP or EUS. Read more about these scans.
If you think you fit any of these groups, speak to your doctor about being monitored. You can also use our Family History Checker to check your family risk.
People with familial pancreatic cancer may be referred to a specialist genetics clinic. If you have a genetic condition in the family that is linked to a higher risk of pancreatic cancer, you may also be referred.
The genetics clinic will work out how likely it is that there is a gene variant linked to pancreatic cancer in the family. Depending on this risk assessment you may be:
Genetic tests look for variants in the genes that we know can be linked to pancreatic cancer. Testing is usually first offered to someone in the family who has developed cancer. If a genetic variant is found, relatives who don’t have cancer can be offered a blood test to look for the same genetic variant.
If you are referred to a genetics clinic, you should first be offered a consultation with a genetic counsellor or genetics doctor. They will provide information about an inherited condition, and the risk of developing it or passing it on. This helps to prepare you for what it means if you find out you have a gene variant that greatly increases your risk of pancreatic cancer.
If you are offered a genetic test after you have talked to a specialist, it is up to you whether you have it. You can take as much time as you need to decide.
If the test shows that you have a gene variant that may cause pancreatic cancer, you should then be told about regular monitoring. through the EUROPAC research study.
If you are referred to a genetics clinic it’s helpful to find out the following information beforehand:
To get the most out of your genetics consultation you might also want to think about questions to ask the genetic counsellor beforehand. You might find these questions helpful.
You can speak to our specialist nurses on our Support Line with any questions about family history.
We have listed some of the references to the sources used to write this information. If you would like the full list of references, email us at publications@pancreaticcancer.org.uk
Published August 2025
To be reviewed August 2028
