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. 2023 May 4;21(1):171.
doi: 10.1186/s12916-023-02852-4.

Combination therapies for cancer: challenges and opportunities

Zhijun Zhou  1 , Barish H Edil  2 , Min Li  3   4
Affiliations

Combination therapies for cancer: challenges and opportunities

Zhijun Zhou et al. BMC Med. .

Abstract

Background: Gastrointestinal cancers represent a major challenge to public health. Pancreatic cancer is the most lethal cancer among all gastrointestinal cancers. Most patients cannot meet the criteria of resection at diagnosis, indicating these patients will have dismal prognosis.

Main text: Neoadjuvant chemotherapy helps some patients regain the opportunity of radical resection. An optimal regimen of chemotherapy is one that maximizes the anti-tumor efficacy while maintaining a relatively manageable safety profile. The development of surgical procedures further improves the outcomes of these patients.

Conclusions: Combination therapies in a multidisciplinary manner that involves modified chemotherapy regimen, radical resection, and intestine auto-transplantation may provide the currently best possible care to patients with locally advanced pancreatic cancer.

Keywords: Combinational therapy; Intestine auto-transplantation; Pancreatic cancer; Radical resection.

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Conflict of interest statement

ML is a board member for this journal. The other authors have no competing interests to declare.

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