Acute Pancreatitis

To the Editor: We would like to emphasize the association between acute pancreatitis and pancreatic cancer, which was not addressed in the review of acute pancreatitis by Forsmark et al. (Nov. 17 issue).1 In rare cases, acute pancreatitis can be the first presentation in patients with pancreatic cancer.2,3 We recently found a 0.4% risk of pancreatic cancer during a median follow-up of 55 months after a first episode of acute pancreatitis. The median time between the first episode of acute pancreatitis and the detection of pancreatic cancer, in patients free from chronic pancreatitis, was 12 months. After a first . . .