Pancreatic cancer in Southern Iran

Pancreatic cancer is still a health problem worldwide. The present study aimed to report the clinical characteristics, prognostic factors and treatment outcomes of 55 cases of pancreatic cancer and the literature review and analysis. Between 1998 and 2008, 55 consecutive patients proven pathologically with adenocarcinoma of the pancreas and treated at our institution were enrolled. To find out the recent major series, a literature review was performed. We selected 35 major series including 257950 patients with pancreatic cancer for discussing the present study. Twenty-four patients [44%] had resectable disease, 19 [34%] had locally advanced disease, and 12 [22%] had metastatic disease. There were 22 women and 33 men ranging in age from 16 to 76 years, with a median age of 57 years at diagnosis. After a median follow-up of 15 months [range=2-104 months] for surviving patients, 14 patients were alive and without disease, 3 patients were alive with disease and 38 patients had died due to disease. The 5-year overall survival was 27%. In this study and by analyzing the large data collection of recent major reported series, we found that pancreatic cancer tended to present at advanced stage, with a high frequency of locoregional and distant failure and a poor outcome. More effective local and systemic treatment for improving overall survival is needed