Pancreatic cancer can arise from either the exocrine or endocrine cells. Cancer of the endocrine pancreas, also known as pancreatic neuroendocrine tumor, is uncommon and has a relatively better prognosis than pancreatic adenocarcinoma (cancer of the exocrine pancreas). In the United States, approximately 48960 people are diagnosed with cancer of the exocrine pancreas each year, and an estimated 40560 people will die from their disease; it is the fourth leading cause of cancer mortality in men and women[1]. Globally, it is the seventh leading cause of cancer mortality in men and women, causing more than 300000 deaths annually[2]. Most patients with pancreatic adenocarcinoma will die within two years of diagnosis, and the 5-year survival rate is less than 5%[3]. The lack of a low cost screening test with high sensitivity and specificity contributes to most cases being diagnosed at an advanced stage. Staging of pancreatic adenocarcinoma is usually done with tri-phasic pancreatic-protocol computed tomography scan of abdomen and pelvis and chest imaging. Based upon imaging, the tumor is classified as resectable, borderline resectable, locally advanced, or metastatic. Approximately 15% to 20% of patients are diagnosed with resectable disease and 45%-55% of patients are diagnosed with metastatic disease[4]. Appropriate staging allows the selection of patients who will have the best chance for curative intent resection (R0). Patients with borderline resectable disease are often given neoadjuvant treatment for tumor downstaging to render resection afterwards. Up to about onethird of patients with borderline-resectable tumors could have resectable disease after neoadjuvant treatment[5]. However, the role of neoadjuvant treatment for resectable pancreatic cancer remains unclear. Surgical resection remains the only curative treatment for pancreatic cancer. A tumor is considered resectable if there is no arterial tumor contact [celiac axis (CA), superior mesenteric artery (SMA), common hepatic artery] and there is no tumor contact with the superior mesenteric vein (SMV) or portal vein (PV) or ≤ 180-degrees contact without vein contour irregularity on imaging study[6]. A tumor is considered unresectable if there is distant metastasis or unreconstructible SMV/PV due to tumor; if the tumor involves the pancreatic head it is unresectable if there is more than 180-degree encasement of the SMA or CA; a tumor of the pancreatic body or tail is unresectable if there is more than 180-degree encasement of the SMA or CA or tumor contact with the CA and aortic involvement[6].
Surgical management may include pancreaticoduodenectomy or pancreatectomy. It has been shown that pancreatic cancer patients undergoing surgery have better outcomes at high-volume hospitals, and the multidisciplinary approach and experienced surgeon seem to contribute most to the outcome of patients receiving pancreatic surgery[7]. The incomplete resection with positive surgical margins is frequent, reported 40% to 50% in most series[8]. The survival rate for patients with positive surgical margins is similar to that of patients who have locally-advanced disease[9]. The long-term survival after surgery remains low due to high rate of systemic recurrence: About 10% for node-positive disease and about 25% to 30% for nodenegative disease[10-13]. Adjuvant treatment has been shown to improve survival as demonstrated in studies such as ESPAC-1, CONKO-001, ESPAC-3, RTOG 9704, and GITSG[14]. However, the delivery of postoperative treatment can be problematic with up to 50% of patients not receiving the intended treatment due to postoperative complications[15,16]. About 15% of patients may develop overt metastatic disease during postoperative recovery period, therefore early initiation of adjuvant chemotherapy within 20 d after surgery has been shown to improve disease-free and overall survival[8,17].