Therapy of pancreatic cancer

Pancreatic cancer remains one of the most difficult diseases to cure. Japan pancreas society guidelines for management of pancreatic cancer indicate therapeutic algorithm according to the clinical stage. For locally limited pancreatic cancer (cStage I, II, III in Japanese classification system), surgical resection is recommended, however prognosis is still poor. Major randomized controlled trials of resected pancreatic cancer indicates that adjuvant chemotherapy is superior to observation and gemcitabine is superior to 5-fluorouracil (FU). For locally advanced resectable pancreatic cancer (cStage IVa in Japanese classification system (JCS)), we perform neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy. Phase I study established a recommended dose of 800 mg gemcitabine and radiation dose of 36 Gy. For locally advanced nonresectable pancreatic cancer (cStage IVa in JCS), chemoradiotherapy followed by chemotherapy is recommended. Although pancreatic cancer is chemotherapy resistant tumor, systemic chemotherapy is recommended for metastatic pancreatic cancer (cStage IVb in JCS). Single-agent gemcitabine is the standard first line agent for the treatment of advanced pancreatic cancer. Meta-analysis of chemotherapy showed possibility of survival benefit of gemcitabine combination chemotherapy over gemcitabine alone. We hope gemcitabine combination chemotherapy or molecular targeted therapy will improve prognosis of pancreatic cancer in the future. (author)