A review of prognostic factors in human pancreatic adenocarcinoma.

The incidence of pancreatic adenocarcinoma is increasing. Pancreatic cancer generally grows without early symptoms until late in its natural history and thus presents many discouraging unresolved problems in management. This review analyses the present state of improved histoquantitative techniques for prognostic assessment of pancreatic cancer. Nuclear morphometry analysis of mitotic rate and DNA flow cytometry can efficiently grade pancreatic cancer into groups with distinctly different prognoses. The practical value of quantitative grading in pancreatic adenocarcinoma today is, however, limited. Efficient grading may have greater clinical relevance after future developments of therapeutic modalities for pancreatic adenocarcinoma.