Gaps and Opportunities in the Diagnosis and Treatment of Pancreatic Cancer
Department of Digestive Tract Diseases, Medical University of Lodz, 90-153 Lodz, Poland
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Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Cancers 2023, 15(23), 5577; https://doi.org/10.3390/cancers15235577
Submission received: 20 October 2023
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Revised: 23 November 2023
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Accepted: 23 November 2023
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Published: 25 November 2023
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Management of Pancreatic Cancer)
Simple Summary
Pancreatic cancer, including primarily pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC), represents a highly lethal disease and an increasingly common cause of cancer mortality worldwide. Diagnostics and treatment of PDAC represent a great challenge for modern medicine. PDAC is a highly malignant diagnosis, characterised by rapid local progression and distant metastasis formation. The screening of disease in general population is not cost effective but may be considered in high-risk groups. Recently, there has been great interest in developing new PDAC serum biomarkers: diagnostic, prognostic, and predictive. The most common management of early stage PDAC is radical surgery, which is rarely possible upon diagnosis. There is a strong need for further research to improve PDAC early detection and management.
Abstract
Pancreatic cancer is one of the leading causes off cancer-related deaths globally. In Europe, this type of cancer has the lowest survival rate of all cancers. A majority of patients have unresectable or even metastatic disease. In addition, actual therapeutic options are not curative, and surgical treatment is associated with high post-operative morbidity and a lack of uniform translation of surgical success into long-term survival. Moreover, there is no screening for the general population which is recommended, and the overall poor prognosis in pancreatic cancer is related to late clinical detection. Therefore, early diagnosis and early treatment of pancreatic cancer are particularly critical. In this review, we summarize the most significant gaps and opportunities in the diagnosis and treatment of pancreatic cancer to emphasize need for improvement of early detection and the therapeutic efficacy of the available treatment for this cancer. Novel, inclusive, and intentional research is needed to produce improvements in pancreatic cancer in mm the world.
