Progress in diagnosis and treatment of locally advanced pancreatic cancer

Pancreatic cancer, one of the common malignant tumors of the digestive system, is secretive in incidence and morbidity. Eighty percent of pancreatic cancer patients have already missed the opportunity of eradicative resection surgery when they were diagnosed, among whom, thirty to fifty percent of patients are in locally advanced tumor stage (specifically signifying the local extensive infiltration of tumor with serious vascular invasion and without distant metastasis) with a five-year survival rate of five to ten percent after excision. The pathogenesis of pancreatic cancer is still unclear, with a low rate of early diagnosis due to its lack of characteristic clinical manifestations. This paper reviewed the relevant studies on the clinical therapy of pancreatic cancer patients in locally advanced tumor stage, which is the key to improve the prognosis of pancreatic cancer.