Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma: emerging therapeutic strategies.

Abstract

The seventh leading cause of cancer-related death globally, pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) involves the exocrine pancreas and constitutes greater than 90% of all pancreatic cancers. Surgical resection in combination with systemic chemotherapy with or without radiation remains the mainstay of treatment and the only potentially curative treatment option. While there has been improvement in systemic chemotherapy, long-term survival among patients with PDAC remains poor. Improvement in the understanding of tumorigenesis, genetic mutations, the tumor microenvironment (TME), immunotherapies, as well as targeted therapies continued to drive advances in PDAC treatment. We herein review the TME, genetic landscape, as well as various metabolic pathways associated with PDAC tumorigenesis relative to emerging therapies.