Just like any other disease, pancreatic cancer must be diagnosed by a physician by doing certain tests and procedures to make sure they are diagnosed correctly. Most patients initially go to the doctor with common symptoms that may turn out to be any number of diseases that a physician has come to educate themselves about. An initial physical exam is usually followed up with things such as blood tests, x-rays or an ultrasound. If the physician were to determine that things did not look normal in one or all of these tests, a CT or computed tomography scan will be ordered. Abnormalties on a CT scan will be followed up with a biopsy to make sure a proper diagnosis is made. There is a certain blood test that can be done to help diagnose a patient with pancreatic cancer. It is called the “tumor marker” test and is also often referred to as CA 19-9. This marker is usually found in the blood of those patients with pancreatic cancer, but can also be found in patients without pancreatic cancer and those with benign conditions. This is not always a definitive way to diagnose pancreatic cancer, as the blood levels in some patients can be normal when they do in fact have pancreatic cancer. A biopsy consists of tissue that is taken from the body so that a pathologist can look at it closely. Abnormal tissues in the body may be referred to as lesions, tumors or masses. To obtain a biopsy of abnormal cells that may be on or around the pancreas, an invasive procedure would have to be done. Invasive means that the tissue that the physician is trying to get to may be hard to obtain. The patient would be sedated for the procedure and pain medication would be administered. The site of the biopsy would most likely be tender for a few days and most the physician would prescribe pain medication to keep the patient comfortable. Once the physician has retrieved the sample, it will be