Current diagnosis and treatment of pancreatic cancer in China.

In China, morbidity and mortality for pancreatic cancer differs from that in most Western countries. Pancreatic cancer is the sixth leading cause of death from malignant disease in China, with an overall cumulative 5-year survival rate of 1% to 3%. Pancreatic cancer has the highest incidence in Shanghai (7.21/100,000) and the lowest (0.47/100,000) in the Hunan Province. As in the Western world, the main reason for the poor outcome of patients with pancreatic cancer is the late establishment of the diagnosis. Pancreatic cancer is seldom detected in early disease stages, and until now, the process of cancer initiation, progression, and formation of metastasis is not sufficiently understood. In this article, we reviewed recent data on patients in China with pancreatic cancer and obtained the most updated information on the different aspects of oncologic research, including epidemiology, molecular biology, diagnosis, and treatment.