AIM:To evaluate the safety and diagnostic accuracy of endoscopic ultrasound-guided fine-needle aspiration(EUS-FNA)in a cohort of pancreatic cancer patients.METHODS:Of 213 patients with pancreatic cancer evaluated between April 2007 and August 2011,82were thought to have resectable pancreatic cancer on the basis of cross-sectional imaging findings.Of these,54 underwent EUS-FNA before surgery(FNA+group)and 28 underwent surgery without preoperative EUSFNA(FNA-group).RESULTS:All 54 lesions were visible on EUS,and all54 attempts at FNA were technically successful.The diagnostic accuracy according to cytology and histology findings was 98.1%(53/54)and 77.8%(42/54),respectively,and the total accuracy was 98.1%(53/54).One patient developed mild pancreatitis after EUS-FNA but was successfully treated by conservative therapy.No severe complications occurred after EUS-FNA.In the FNA+and FNA-groups,the median relapse-free survival(RFS)was 742 and 265 d,respectively(P=0.0099),and the median overall survival(OS)was1042 and 557 d,respectively(P=0.0071).RFS and OS were therefore not inferior in the FNA+group.These data indicate that the use of EUS-FNA did not influence RFS or OS,nor did it increase the risk of peritoneal recurrence.CONCLUSION:In patients with resectable pancreatic cancer,preoperative EUS-FNA is a safe and accurate diagnostic method. AIM: To evaluate the safety and diagnostic accuracy of endoscopic ultrasound-guided fine-needle aspiration (EUS-FNA) in a cohort of pancreatic cancer patients. METHODS: Of 213 patients with pancreatic cancer evaluated between April 2007 and August 2011,82were thought to had resectable pancreatic cancer on the basis of cross-sectional imaging findings. Of these 54 underwent EUS-FNA before surgery (FNA + group) and 28 underwent surgery without preoperative EUSFNA (FNA-group) .RESULTS: All 54 lesions were visible on EUS, and all54 attempts at FNA were technically successful. The diagnostic accuracy according to cytology and histology findings was 98.1% (53/54) and 77.8% (42/54), respectively, and the total accuracy was 98.1% (53/54 ) .One patient developed mild pancreatitis after EUS-FNA but was successfully treated by conservative therapy. No implication of after EUS-FNA. The FNA + and FNA-groups, the median relapse-free survival (RFS) was 742 and 265 d, respectively (P = 0.0099), and the median overall survival (OS) was1042 and 557 d, respectively (P = 0.0071) .RFS and OS were all not inferior in the FNA + group. the data show that the use of EUS-FNA did not affect RFS or OS, nor did it increase the risk of peritoneal recurrence. CONCLUSION: In patients with resectable pancreatic cancer, preoperative EUS-FNA is a safe and accurate diagnostic method.