"Enormous Failure" In Treatment Of Early Pancreatic Cancer

"More than half of eligible patients with operable, early-stage pancreatic cancer don't undergo potentially life-extending surgery, suggests a study published online this week by the Annals of Surgery, published by Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, a part of Wolters Kluwer Health.

'The only opportunity for cure in early-stage patients is surgical resection, but nihilistic attitudes toward pancreatic cancer likely contribute to this striking underuse of curative resection for pancreatic adenocarcinoma,' according to the new report. The lead author was Dr. Karl Y. Bilimoria of Northwestern University, Chicago.

The researchers analyzed data on more than 9,500 patients with early-stage cancers of the pancreas treated between 1995 and 2004. All patients had 'potentially resectable' cancers that had not yet spread to the lymph nodes or elsewhere. Data for the study came from the American College of Surgeons National Cancer Data Base (NCDB).

The study looked at how many patients underwent surgery, called pancreatectomy, to remove the cancer. If surgery was not performed, the researchers evaluated the reasons why."