Current Standards and New Innovative Approaches for Treatment of Pancreatic Cancer

Dear Colleagues,

Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) has become the 3rd leading cause of cancer-related death in the USA since February 2016. Early detection is uncommon with 80%–85% PDACs diagnosed in advanced stage, for which systemic chemotherapy remains the standard of care. In the era of gemcitabine monotherapy, the median overall survival (OS) of patients with metastatic, locally advanced and resectable PDAC receiving gemcitabine chemotherapy were approximately 5.5–7.5, 8.5–13.5 and 22–24 months, respectively. The recent introduced combination regimens of FOLFIRINOX and nab-paclitaxel/gemcitabine after 2010 have improved the median OS of patients with metastatic PDAC to 8.5–11.5 months; while the integration of the combination regimens into multi-discipline strategies for locoregional diseases, the median OS of patients with locally advanced and resectable diseases can now be improved to 18–36 months, and 54.5 months (PRODIGE24/CCTG PA.6), respectively, in recently published clinical studies. However, the 5-year survival in real word practice remains in single-digit.

To improve the understanding on recent advances in clinical and translational researches as well as the future directions for therapeutic developments, we would like to invite you to contribute an article for this Special Issue, which aims to provide state of the art knowledge on a broad range of clinical and translational issues in pancreatic cancer, covering topics from epidemiology, genetic profiling, the applications of transgenic mouse model and organoid culture in translation researches, and the role of tumor microenvironment and cancer cachexia in the pathogenesis of pancreatic cancer in the basic/translational science part. We shall also cover the recent advances in clinical management of various stage of pancreatic cancer, emphasizing multi-discipline approach, as well as the future perspective of immunotherapy and stroma-targeting therapy in the clinical science part. Hopefully, it will be a great asset in clinical practice for all who are involved or interested in the management of pancreatic cancer.

Dr. Li-Tzong Chen
Guest Editor

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