Surgical Treatment of Resectable and Borderline Resectable Pancreatic Cancer: Expert Consensus Statement by Evans et al.

Excerpt

Treatment for pancreatic adenocarcinoma has evolved steadily over the past 10 years. Pancreatic resection remains the mainstay of therapy for eligible patients. Much of this evolution in care involves technical aspects of the procedure. Coupled with improvements in imaging, more consistent classification schemes, and the use of nonsurgical adjuvant therapies, the primary benefits have been extension of potentially curative resection to those previously considered ineligible. Second, evolution in therapy may have improved survival by allowing treatment of previously untreatable patients or by downstaging patients with more advanced disease such that their outcomes are similar to disease at an earlier stage (e.g., vascular resection). However, overall improvements in survival have remained elusive, confirming the notion that disease biology continues to be the primary determinate of outcome for these patients, despite advances in surgical technique and systemic therapy. …