Influence of multimodality therapy on the management of pancreas carcinoma.

Carcinoma of the pancreas has an especially grim prognosis. Only 1-3% of patients survive for 5 years. Radical pancreaticoduodenectomy, especially for minimal disease, is currently the only chance for cure. While radiation therapy does not improve overall survival, it may improve local control following radical resection and decrease pain in locally advanced cancers. Although chemotherapy has led to significant improvements in survival in patients with locally advanced disease, the overall effect is small. When surgery, radiotherapy, and chemotherapy are administered to localized carcinomas in randomized, prospective trials, survival is significantly lengthened. Similar trials in locally advanced, unresectable pancreatic cancer also confirm the concept of synergistic interaction between therapies. Thus, pancreas carcinoma is one neoplasm where multimodality therapy has had a demonstrable, although small effect.