EFFETTI DEL RITARDO DIAGNOSTICO SUL TRATTAMENTO E SULLA SOPRAVVIVENZA NEI PAZIENTI AFFETTI DA CANCRO DUTTALE PANCREATICO

Pancreatic cancer is a serious disease. The 5-year gIobaI survival varies between 1 to 5 % . Surgery is the only curative treatment available for this cancer; it is justified only in selected patients with a less than 4 cm major diameter pancreatic neopIasm. In these patients, survival rate is about 30 %. In this study many aspects are considertd: the very difficult early diagnosis, the correct diagnostic process, the present surgical procedures and new trends in biologic and genetic research. Methods. Seventy-seven patients hàve been operated on for pancreatic cancer over a twenty year period (1972-1993): 84.7 % of them had a curative resection. Results. Global 5.year survival was 31.5%. The other patients had a global 5-year survival rate of 5.2 % . Conclusions. These results suggest that more studies are necessary to define an «early pancreatic cancer» and how to detect it, in order to significantly improve the survival of these patients.