Pancreatic cancer: progress in cancer therapy.
Pancreatic cancer continues to be a highly lethal disease. In fact the overall 5-year survival rate is less than 4% and has hardly improved over the past two decades. Surgery is the only potential curative treatment, but the majority of patients have an unresectable disease at the diagnosis. After the demonstration in 1997 that gemcitabine could lead to an improvement in clinical benefit and overall survival this chemotherapy agent became the standard of care for advanced pancreatic cancer patients. Several authors tried to improve results obtained with single agent gemcitabine by exploring the activity of novel chemotherapy on biologically targeted agents in combination with gemcitabine. Unfortunately, global findings were often disappointing with only a marginally significant survival benefit. New treatment strategies and a more careful evaluation of innovative therapies are clearly needed for this disease. In this review we will focus on treatment strategies both in resectable and advanced pancreatic cancer.
Pierantoni
Chiara
C
Clinica di Oncologia Medica, Università Politecnica delle Marche, Azienda Ospedaliero-Universitaria Ospedali Riuniti Umberto I, Lancisi, Salesi, Ancona, Italy.
Pagliacci
Alessandra
A
Scartozzi
Mario
M
Berardi
Rossana
R
Bianconi
Maristella
M
Cascinu
Stefano
S
D000970:Antineoplastic Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D017024:Chemotherapy, Adjuvant; D002986:Clinical Trials as Topic; D003131:Combined Modality Therapy; D013505:Digestive System Surgical Procedures; D006801:Humans; D020360:Neoadjuvant Therapy; D010190:Pancreatic Neoplasms / Q000628:therapy*; D011878:Radiotherapy
D000970:Antineoplastic Agents