[Surgical therapy of pancreatic carcinoma]

Among different treatment modalities for exocrine pancreatic cancer from the surgical point of view the performance of complete tumor resection must be the aim independent any controversies about principles of surgery. Although the overall prognosis is generally poor, therapeutic nihilism is not justified any longer because postoperative mortality could be decreased to less than 5% in the past years. Nevertheless, the rate of long-term survival can only be improved by early diagnosis based on the knowledge of individual risk factors as well as by multimodality strategies including perioperative regimens (chemo- and/or radiotherapy) to increase survival rates even in advanced stages of this tumor with its dismal prognosis.