Abstract
Abstract
Pancreatic cancer is a leading cause of cancer death with overall 5-year survival of 5%. For the small proportion of patients who present with localized disease, surgical resection remains a necessary treatment component to achieve lasting survival. Over the past 20-30 years, multi-modal therapy involving the addition of chemotherapy and/or radiation has emerged as an important adjunct to surgery in order to prolong survival. However, patients undergoing resection are often affected by surgical complications, early recurrences, and inability to receive the recommended adjuvant therapy. For these reasons, neoadjuvant therapy has emerged as an attractive option, and in the United States, there has been a significant trend towards neoadjuvant treatment for resectable and borderline-resectable pancreatic tumors. In this review, historical evidence leading to the emergence of neoadjuvant treatment and recent studies of neoadjuvant regimens are summarized. Finally, an overview of ongoing randomized clinical trials is presented.