Changing Practice Patterns and Improving Survival for Patients with Pancreatic Ductal Adenocarcinoma

Abstract

Over the last two decades, there have been many reported advances in the clinical management of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC). We sought to evaluate changes in survival for patients diagnosed with PDAC between 2004 and 2017. The National Cancer Database was queried for patients diagnosed with PDAC between 2004 and 2017. There were 55,401 patients who underwent surgery and 109,477 patients who underwent non-surgical treatment for PDAC between 2004 and 2017. Patients were categorized into four groups by year of diagnosis. Median survival improved from 15.5 months to 25.3 months for patients treated with surgery between the years 2016 and 2017 compared with between 2004 and 2007 (p p p < 0.001). This increase in survival in the setting of evolving care validates continued efforts aimed at improving survival for patients with this devastating disease.

Keywords

• pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma
• National Cancer Database
• survival patterns
• treatment