Current status and future direction of chemotherapy for pancreatic cancer

Pancreatic carcinoma is a disease with a dismal prognosis; the 5-year survival rate of patients diagnosed with this cancer remains less than 5% (1). Since it is difficult to diagnose pancreatic cancer at an early stage, 70-80% patients with pancreatic cancer have unresectable disease, including locally advanced or distant metastatic disease, at diagnosis. Pancreatic cancer is currently the fifth leading cause of cancer-related mortality in Japan, with an estimated 28,017 deaths occurring from the disease in 2010 (2).