Pancreatic Cancer Research Today is a free monthly online journal that collates and summarizes the latest research about Pancreatic Cancer, including details on symptoms, causes, treatment, information.

Locally advanced pancreatic cancer.

Willett CG, Czito BG, Bendell JC, Ryan DP

Department of Radiation Oncology, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC 27710, USA. willett@radonc.duke.edu

Of the 32,180 patients diagnosed with pancreatic carcinoma in the United States this year, approximately 40% will present with locally advanced disease. Radiotherapeutic approaches are often employed because these patients have unresectable tumors by virtue of local invasion into the retroperitoneal vessels in the absence of clinically detectable metastases. These treatments include external-beam irradiation with and without fluorouracil-based chemotherapy, intraoperative irradiation, and, more recently, external-beam irradiation with new systemic targeted agents.

Published 8 July 2005 in J Clin Oncol, 23(20): 4538-44.
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