The "most interesting" finding was the pancreatic cyst, because, at this size and location, there's a 3 percent chance it will become cancerous in the next five years. But if annual follow-up scans of my pancreas (covered by insurance) show it's getting bigger, the cyst can be removed before it becomes cancer. For me, this made the MRI worthwhile. Sure, there was a 97 percent likelihood the cyst never would develop into a problem even if I hadn't learned about it. But now, with minimal inconvenience, I can eliminate that 3 percent risk of getting pancreatic cancer, the most lethal of major malignancies.
The normal lifetime incident of pancreatic duct adenocarcinoma (PDAC) in men is 1.8%. That cyst is bumping the odds up by about 2/3 (from what the says) is significant but not a huge change.
But he is seriously misinformed about the medicine here. He imagines that checking this cyst periodically will alert him before it becomes cancerous and metastasizes and then removing the cyst will be a "minimal inconvenience" and this program will protect him from the risk of PDAC.
MRI is not currently reliable for detecting the development of PDAC whether a cyst is present or not -- it can develop as a lesion, not a cyst, and not be detected and the cyst can be become cancerous and that transition not be detected. And removing the cyst will not eliminate his chance of getting PDAC -- only removing the entire pancreas will do that and that results in severe permanent metabolic disease including refractory diabetes, shortening life. And far from being "minimal inconvenience" any surgery on the pancreas is major surgery -- it is not easily accessed, multiple internal organs must be displaced to gain access.
Since the typical PDAC is almost always fatal why aren't we using MRIs to screen everyone for this deadly disease? Doesn't this MRI monitoring work as he supposes? Unfortunately at the present time this is not an effective screening method -- no one has a demonstrated effective surveillance program. Even though it found a cyst that is a potential threat, and has a chance of detecting its transition to becoming cancerous, one potential pathway to PDAC, thus this reducing his chances of getting PDAC, his apparent belief that this will eliminate the risk of getting PDAC is false. MRIs and MRI analysis is constantly improving so this may be possible in the not too distant future, but at present he is assuming effectiveness that is not available.