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Updated: 12/12/06 08:23 AM
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Options for management of pancreatic adenocarcinoma usually involve combinations of surgery,
chemotherapy, and radiation that must be customized for individual patients, based on patient
factors and the location and extent of the cancer. Of these three types of treatment, only
surgery offers the potential for cure and then only in a carefully selected subset of patients.
Patients who may be cured with surgery (supported by other, adjunctive therapy) are those with
localized disease that can be completely removed to clear margins. Unfortunately for many patients,
by the time the cancer is detected it has escaped the local region of the pancreas and spread into
adjacent organs or regional lymph node beds, and/or systemically to the liver, lungs, and beyond.
In such patients, surgery may still be considered to improve the quality of a patient’s life by
controlling complications of the disease such as bleeding, bile duct, or intestinal obstruction.
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| © Copyright University of Washington Division of Gastroenterology 1999-2008
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