Pancreatic cancer: a review of recent advances.
Pancreatic cancer is one of the most common causes of cancer-related death. Despite the advances of the molecular pathogenesis, pancreatic cancer remains a major unsolved health problem. Overall, the 5-year survival rate is < 5% and only approximately 20% of the 10% of patients with resectable disease survive 5 years. Recently, the European Study Group for Pancreatic Cancer 1 trial demonstrated substantially increased survival from adjuvant chemotherapy with 5-fluorouracil-folinic acid and preliminary data showed prolonged disease-free survival from adjuvant gemcitabine. Current palliative therapeutic approaches mostly focused on evaluating chemotherapy regimens in which gemcitabine is combined with a second cytotoxic agent. Recently, large randomised trials of combinations of gemcitabine with either capecitabine or with erlotinib demonstrated prolonged survival and 1-year survival rates of approximately 25%. The advance of molecular biology has led to the elucidation of molecular events that are important for pancreatic carcinogenesis and has provided a foundation for the development of novel chemotherapeutic and biological agents that appear to be promising and are likely to play a future role in the treatment of patients with advanced pancreatic cancer.
Eckel
Florian
F
Technical University of Munich, Department of Internal Medicine, Germany.
Schneider
Günter
G
Schmid
Roland M
RM
D000276:Adjuvants, Immunologic / Q000627:therapeutic use; D000818:Animals; D000970:Antineoplastic Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D019496:Cancer Vaccines / Q000627:therapeutic use; D002986:Clinical Trials as Topic; D003841:Deoxycytidine / Q000031:analogs & derivatives / Q000627:therapeutic use; D015507:Drugs, Investigational / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D006801:Humans; D010190:Pancreatic Neoplasms / Q000188:drug therapy*; D047428:Protein Kinase Inhibitors / Q000627:therapeutic use; D000093542:Gemcitabine
D000276:Adjuvants, Immunologic; D000970:Antineoplastic Agents; D019496:Cancer Vaccines; D015507:Drugs, Investigational; D047428:Protein Kinase Inhibitors; D003841:Deoxycytidine; D000093542:Gemcitabine