Updates of Chemotherapy and Radiotherapy for Pancreatic Cancer

Abstract

Pancreatic cancer is still one of the most aggressive malignancy, showing 10% of 5-year survival. Among the several reasons of the grave prognosis, the poor response to chemotherapeutic agents and the absence of effective tool for early detection are the most important. Regarding treatments, surgical resection is still positioned as the only one for expecting the cure of pancreatic cancer. However, the rate of recurrence after surgery is still high as more than 50%. And the portion of patients who are diagnosed at the resectable stage is still less than 15% of all cases. So, chemotherapy and radiotherapy are the main players for combating with pancreatic cancer. After the introduction of outcomes of FOLFIRINOX, and gemcitabine/nabpaclitaxel for metastatic pancreatic cancer, two-digit overall survival can be expected. And, neoadjuvant treatments including concurrent chemoradiation therapy for borderline resectable pancreatic cancer and/or resectable pancreatic cancer are reported as superior to upfront surgery. More recently, several target agents including polyadenosine diphosphate-ribose polymerase inhibitors and immunologic drugs are under evaluation for pancreatic cancer. So, herein, current status of chemotherapy and radiation therapy for pancreatic cancer will be addressed.