[Chemotherapy for advanced pancreatic carcinoma]

In advanced pancreatic cancer, chemotherapy has no curative potential, and the goal is to palliate symptoms or delay their onset so as to improve the quality of life of patients. There is no standard chemotherapeutic regimen with a clear advantage in survival prolongation or response rate, over any other regimen. Moreover, difficulties in determining the chemotherapeutic response have made accurate determination of the response rate virtually impossible for each trial. 5-FU and MMC are two main drugs so far in single-agent chemotherapy, but streptozotocin, doxorubicin, ifosfamide, epirubicin and CDDP are also investigated. FAM and SMF are the representative regimen of combination chemotherapy, but recently FP or biochemical modulation have been under close scruting. For greater improvement of chemotherapy, a new drug or combined modality approach is awaited.