Medicine Matters oncology

Pancreatic cancer is the twelfth most common cancer worldwide with a 5 year overall survival rate of 5%. About 96% of pancreatic cancers are exocrine tumours, the most prevalent of which is pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC).  The majority of patients diagnosed with PDAC have inoperable metastatic disease because it is rarely detected in its early stages.

Many treating clinicians of PDAC perceive gemcitabine to be the only mode of treatment with a subsequent poor prognosis. However, there are now a greater number of therapeutic options available and consequently patients have the possibility to undergo multiple lines of treatment. To achieve the full potential of these new and emerging treatments,  clinicians must be kept up to date and also supported in the decision-making process to select the most suitable treatment regimen for an individual patient. 

To help clinicians navigate the rapidly evolving treatment landscape, these two interactive patient case studies present the data in the context of a patient’s journey from diagnosis through both first- and subsequent-line treatments, also covering the biomarkers that may be used to guide treatment choice.

References

Cancer Research UK. https://www.cancerresearchuk.org/health-professional/cancer-statistics/statistics-by-cancer-type/pancreatic-cancer

Claudia Allemani et al. Global surveillance of trends in cancer survival 2000–14 (CONCORD-3): analysis of individual records for 37 513 025 patients diagnosed with one of 18 cancers from 322 population-based registries in 71 countries. Lancet 2018; 391: 1023­–75. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(17)33326-3

Pancreatic cancer action. https://pancreaticcanceraction.org/news/worrying-report-ranks-uk-pancreatic-cancer-survival-47th-56-countries/