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Recognition and diagnosis

The earliest recognition of pancreatic cancer has been attributed to the 18th-century Italian scientist Giovanni Battista Morgagni, the historical father of modern-day anatomic pathology, who claimed to have traced several cases of cancer in the pancreas. Many 18th and 19th-century physicians were skeptical about the existence of the disease, given the similar appearance of pancreatitis. Some case reports were published in the 1820s and 1830s, and a genuine histopathologic diagnosis was eventually recorded by the American clinician Jacob Mendes Da Costa, who also doubted the reliability of Morgagni's interpretations. By the start of the 20th century, cancer of the head of the pancreas had become a well-established diagnosis.