[Adenocarcinoma of the exocrine pancreas: management and therapeutic hopes].

INTRODUCTION

Pancreatic carcinoma is a major public health concern, as it kills more than 6,000 people each year in France.

CURRENT KNOWLEDGE AND KEY POINTS

The main risk factor demonstrated by concordant case-control studies is cigarette smoking. Pancreatic carcinoma is generally diagnosed at an advanced stage. Results of radical surgery are still poor. In most of the reported series, less than 25% of the patients survive at five years.

FUTURE PROSPECTS AND PROJECTS

Postoperative radiochemotherapy slightly increases the hope of cure. In locally advanced tumors, radiochemotherapy, sometimes preoperative, allows some patients to survive more than two years. Though results of palliative chemotherapy remain very poor, some clinical benefit has been observed in randomized trials comparing this treatment with the currently best supportive treatment.