[Surgical treatment of pancreatic cancer]

Surgery remains the only hope for cure in pancreatic cancer. The most common procedures are reviewed. Postoperative morbidity and mortality below 30% and 5%, respectively, are the standard. The benefit of extended lymph node dissection and portal-mesenteric vein resection is dubious. Selected patients with locally advanced cancer may be down-staged with chemo-radiotherapy and eventually resected. Endoscopic stent placement is the preferred method to relieve biliary and/or gastrointestinal obstruction. The outcome is better for patients treated at high-volume centres than at smaller hospitals.