title: Advances in early diagnosis and therapy of pancreatic cancer.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Pancreatic cancer remains a devastating disease with a 5-year survival rate of less than 5%. Recent advances in diagnostic methods and therapeutic approaches have increased the possibility of improving the existing poor prognosis.
  
  
  METHODS
  English-language articles reporting early diagnosis and therapy of pancreatic cancer were searched from the MEDLINE and PubMed databases, Chinese-language articles were from CHKD (China Hospital Knowledge Database).
  
  
  RESULTS
  The current literature about pancreatic cancer was reviewed from three aspects: statistics, screening and early detection, and therapy.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Early detection and screening of pancreatic cancer currently should be limited to high risk patients. Surgical resection is the only curative approach available, with some recent improvement in outcomes. Gemcitabine has been a standard treatment during the last decade. Gemcitabine-based combination treatment, especially combined with newer molecular targeted agents, is promising. The rationale for radiotherapy is controversial, but with the recent development of modern radiation delivery techniques, radiotherapy should be intensified. Patients with borderline pancreatic cancer could benefit from neoadjuvant therapy but more evidence is needed and the best neoadjuvant regimen is still to be determined.
authors: Department of General Surgery, Peking Union Medical College Hospital, Peking Union Medical College & Chinese Academy of Medial Sciences, Beijing 100730, China.
authors: Qiang
authors: Q
authors: Xu
authors: Tai-Ping
authors: TP
authors: Zhang
authors: Yu-Pei
authors: YP
authors: Zhao
mesh_terms: D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor / Q000032:analysis; D018395:CA-19-9 Antigen / Q000097:blood; D055088:Early Detection of Cancer; D019160:Endosonography; D006801:Humans; D018396:Mucin-1 / Q000032:analysis; D010190:Pancreatic Neoplasms / Q000737:chemistry / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000628:therapy*
chemical_list: D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor; D018395:CA-19-9 Antigen; C060192:MUC1 protein, human; D018396:Mucin-1