Adjuvant therapy of pancreatic cancer.

Of the 33,370 patients diagnosed with pancreatic carcinoma in the United States this year, approximately 20% will present with resectable disease. At present, surgery offers the only means of cure. Radiation therapy and chemotherapy approaches have been used to enhance local and systemic control and survival. Phase III trials evaluating these modalities have led to conflicting results, leading to controversy in the use and selection of therapy. Phase II studies are now being conducted to evaluate target agent therapy with chemoradiation.