Randomized Clinical Trials in Pancreatic Cancer

The management of pancreatic cancer has grown rapidly in the last decade. The Gastrointestinal Tumor Study Group trial in 1985 supported postoperative chemoradiation, and a more recent study recommended 6 months of adjuvant gemcitabine and capecitabine or monotherapy with gemcitabine or fluorouracil plus folinic acid, in the absence of neoadjuvant therapy. Clinicians are now studying the role of targeted therapy in pancreatic cancer and neoadjuvant chemotherapy in resectable, borderline resectable, and locally advanced pancreatic cancer. This article critically evaluates the evolution of pancreatic cancer management, focussing on level 1a, prospective randomized control trials from 2007 to 2017.