Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is often associated with a poor prognosis due to silent onset, resistance to therapies, and rapid spreading. Most patients are ineligible for curable surgery as they present with advanced disease at the time of diagnosis. Present diagnostic methods relying on anatomical changes have various limitations including difficulty to discriminate between benign and malignant conditions, invasiveness, the ambiguity of imaging results, or the inability to detect molecular biomarkers of PDAC initiation and progression. Therefore, new imaging technologies with high sensitivity and specificity are critically needed for accurately detecting PDAC and noninvasively characterizing molecular features driving its pathogenesis. Contrast enhanced targeted ultrasound (CETUS) is an upcoming molecular imaging modality that specifically addresses these issues. Unlike anatomical imaging modalities such as CT and MRI, molecular imaging using CETUS is promising for early and accurate detection of PDAC. The use of molecularly targeted microbubbles that bind to neovascular targets can enhance the ultrasound signal specifically from malignant PDAC tissues. This review discusses the current state of diagnostic imaging modalities for pancreatic cancer and places a special focus on ultrasound targeted‐microbubble technology together with its clinical translatability for PDAC detection.

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靶向微泡在胰腺癌分子影像诊断中的研究现状

胰腺导管腺癌 (PDAC) 由于起病隐匿、治疗耐药和快速扩散，通常与预后不良相关。大多数患者不适合进行可治愈的手术，因为他们在诊断时已处于晚期疾病。目前依赖解剖学变化的诊断方法具有各种局限性，包括难以区分良性和恶性病症、侵袭性、成像结果的模糊性或无法检测 PDAC 起始和进展的分子生物标志物。因此，迫切需要具有高灵敏度和特异性的新成像技术来准确检测 PDAC 并无创地表征驱动其发病机制的分子特征。对比增强靶向超声 (CETUS) 是一种即将推出的分子成像模式，专门解决这些问题。与 CT 和 MRI 等解剖成像方式不同，使用 CETUS 的分子成像有望实现 PDAC 的早期准确检测。使用与新生血管靶标结合的分子靶向微泡可以增强来自恶性 PDAC 组织的超声信号。本综述讨论了胰腺癌诊断成像模式的现状，并特别关注超声靶向微泡技术及其对 PDAC 检测的临床可转化性。