title: Medical treatment of pancreatic cancer.
abstract: Pancreatic carcinoma is a devastating disease with the worst prognosis of all solid tumors; the only cure is surgery. The vast majority of patients are inoperable at the time of diagnosis and require palliative treatment. With a median survival time oscillating around 6 months, indicating an almost complete resistance to conventional cytotoxic and radiation therapy, there is ample room for improvement. Therefore, pancreatic carcinoma has been used to trial many new substances and novel concepts. All aspects of palliative antitumor treatment will be presented in detail and discussed. Finally, some outlooks are given into the future of pancreatic cancer treatment.
authors.affiliation: Molekulare Gastroenterologie mit dem Deutschen Krebsforschungszentrum (DKFZ G350) II. Medizinische Klinik, Medizinische Fakultät Mannheim, Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg, Mannheim, Germany. matthias.loehr@uni-heidelberg.de
authors.forename: J-Matthias
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Löhr
mesh_terms: D000970:Antineoplastic Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use; D015316:Genetic Therapy / Q000379:methods; D006801:Humans; D010190:Pancreatic Neoplasms / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000235:genetics / Q000628:therapy*
chemical_list: D000970:Antineoplastic Agents