SEOM clinical guidelines for the treatment of pancreatic cancer.

Pancreatic cancer (PC) is one of the main causes of cancer-related death in the United States and Europe. Due to its poor long-term survival, all patients with PC should undergo a comprehensive evaluation by a Multidisciplinary Tumor Committee to establish the best therapeutic strategy. Pathologic PC diagnosis should be made according to the latest WHO classification of malignant tumours and an accurate staging is crucial to assess resectability, determine the extension and, in some cases, reestablish biliary flow. For patients with localised resectable disease the standard treatment option is radical pancreatic resection. The aim of resection is to obtain microscopically negative margins (R0) and also to resect the drainage lymph nodes. In those cases diagnosed with locally advanced unresectable or metastatic PC, palliative bypass of intestinal or biliary obstruction followed by chemotherapy or chemoradiation remains the main palliative treatment option. Since 1997, gemcitabine monotherapy has been considered the standard of care for advanced PC. In recent years new chemotherapy combinations and targeted agents have demonstrated significant antitumoral activity, increasing the armamentarium that can be used against this lethal disease.