Cutting-edge strategies for borderline resectable pancreatic cancer

Abstract

Worldwide, pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) accounts for more than 400 000 deaths every year, being the 12th most common cancer and the seventh most frequent cause of death from cancer. Regardless of the advances in diagnosis and treatment, PDAC continues to have dismal outcomes and fewer than 25% of patients survive for 1 year. In the absence of metastatic disease, radical surgery remains the most important factor for improving survival and possibly offer cure. However, approximately 80% of patients cannot be offered surgery owing to locally advanced or metastatic disease at presentation. At presentation, only 10%-20% patients are eligible for resection, 30%-40% are unresectable/locally advanced and 50%-60% are metastatic. One promising development in recent years has been the inclusion of a new subgroup within the locally advanced tumors of borderline resectable pancreatic cancer (BRPC) comprising approximately 5%-10% of the total patient population. Although its exact definition has been refined over the past few years depending on the vascular involvement around the tumor, the term was initially proposed for tumors that are at a high risk of having margin positivity after resection. Various treatment approaches are still evolving for this entity. Herein, we reviewed the current status of different treatment modalities for BRPC.

Keywords: borderline; borderline resectable pancreatic cancer; pancreatic cancer; pancreaticoduodenectomy.