Metastatic Pancreatic Cancer

Abstract

Pancreatic cancer is one of the most aggressive of human malignancies. In the United States, more than 37,000 people develop pancreatic adenocarcinoma each year, and almost all are expected to die from this disease [1], which is the fifth leading cause of cancer death in the country [2]. In Europe, about 40,000 deaths from pancreatic cancer are observed each year [3]. Median survival is only eight to twelve months for patients with locally advanced disease and three to six months for patients with metastatic disease, regardless of the therapy chosen. The overall survival rate is less than 5% [2]. Surgical resection is the only potentially curative treatment for pancreatic cancer. Unfortunate..