[Recent important insights into treatment of pancreatic cancer]

Abstract

Although surgical resection provides the only potentially curative modality in patients with pancreatic cancer, the long-term results of pancreatectomy still remain extremely poor. Despite the recent advances made in surgical techniques and/or increased surgical radicality, only limited progress has been made in improving the survival. Moreover, pancreatic cancer in most patients is surgically unresectable at the time of diagnosis. Chemotherapy and/or radiotherapy, therefore, still remain key modalities for treatment of pancreatic cancer. Recently, several randomized trials on the effects of these modalities have been reported. Various newly designed large-scale clinical trials are now in progress. In this article, recent important insights into the surgical treatment, chemotherapy, and radiotherapy of pancreatic cancer are discussed.