Surgery of pancreatic cancer

Pancreatic cancer which has an increasing incidence in the western countries is associated with an especially poor prognosis. This is mainly due to the low proportion of early and radically resectable stages, when diagnosed. Patients with irresectable disease have a median survival time of 3-4 months and their prognosis is not essentially improved by chemotherapy and/or radiotherapy. Nevertheless, surgical resection should be performed if possible, although the 5-year survival rates are in the range of 5-15%, only. Apart from other locations, periampullar pancreatic cancer has a markedly better prognosis with 5-year survival rates of 25%-35% after curative resection.