The future of surgery for pancreatic cancer

Carcinoma of the pancreas has a grim prognosis even following surgical resection. Only a relatively small proportion of patients have a resectable tumour at presentation. At the present time it is uncertain whether the use of radical forms of surgery, or adjuvant therapy improve survival. It is however unlikely that either of these approaches will greatly increase the number of long term survivors. Earlier diagnosis particularly in individuals who are at greater risk of developing carcinoma of the pancreas is one way in which results might be improved. Unfortunately current imaging techniques are inadequate for the diagnosis of early disease. New molecular diagnostics techniques that can identify example mutations in oncogenes such as K-ras or deletions of tumour suppressor genes such as P53 or P16 are being developed. These tumour specific abnormalities are also a target for gene therapy. Surgery alone cannot cure any patient with pancreatic cancer but may in the future in conjunction with these new approaches.