Surgical Palliation for Advanced Pancreas Cancer

To provide optimal care in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma, involvement of palliative medicine and nutritional support is recommended. Advances in endoscopy have resulted in robust options for biliary and gastrointestinal stenting for relief of obstruction. Notwithstanding, surgical hepaticojejunostomy and gastrojejunostomy remain incontrovertible considerations for biliary obstruction and gastric outlet obstruction, respectively. For PDAC-associated pain, opioid therapy continues to be the mainstay. However, refractory pain may be treated with interventional procedures such as celiac or splanchnic nerve blocks or neurolysis. In patients with PDAC, enteral nutrition can be further complicated by exocrine pancreatic insufficiency, which should be treated with oral pancreatic enzyme supplementation.