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5 treatment settings, 4 with more than one named option. Each section lays out the options the standard of care names, what each is for, the trials behind them with their recorded results, the side effects and cautions on record, and questions to ask. Built from the cancer page's standard-of-care rows; nothing here is advice for your case.
Answer a few questions from a report and read the guideline statement that applies, quoted word for word with its source. Educational aids, not advice.
Modified FOLFIRINOX for two to four months in fit patients, gemcitabine plus nab-paclitaxel otherwise; restage with CT and CA 19-9 before deciding on surgery (PREOPANC, ESPAC-5).
FOLFIRINOX is a four-drug chemotherapy combination that, in 2011, became the first treatment to meaningfully extend life in metastatic pancreatic cancer; it is now the standard before and after surgery.
Gemcitabine plus nab-paclitaxel is the gentler of the two standard chemotherapy backbones for pancreatic cancer, and the base on which most new drugs are being tested.
Averages across everyone diagnosed, often years ago. A median is the middle of a group: half the people counted lived longer than the figure shown, and some lived far longer. Your stage, subtype, age, fitness and the treatment you receive matter more than the average, and the numbers are improving quickly.
Averages across everyone diagnosed, often years ago. A median is the middle of a group: half the people counted lived longer than the figure shown, and some lived far longer. Your stage, subtype, age, fitness and the treatment you receive matter more than the average, and the numbers are improving quickly.
No side-effect rates or interaction flags are recorded for these options yet. The side-effect lookup and interaction checker cover the products that have them.
Add these to your appointment list, or take the full question set for this cancer.
Optional; conventional chemoradiation or stereotactic radiotherapy to secure an arterial margin in selected patients, with ALLIANCE A021501 as the caution against routine use.
Stereotactic body radiotherapy converges multiple beams with sub-millimetre accuracy to deliver tumour-destroying doses in one to five outpatient sessions, doing the job of surgery for inoperable early lung cancer and for metastases in liver, spine and brain. Tumour size and location limit its use, and late toxicity is a concern near the central airways.
An MR-linac is a radiation machine with an MRI scanner built in, so images taken during setup let the plan be re-optimised in minutes to that day's anatomy. It allows tighter margins and higher doses in pancreatic and prostate cancer, but treatment is slow and costly, and whether daily adaptation improves cure rates rather than only toxicity is unproven.
Capecitabine (Xeloda) is a tablet form of the chemotherapy fluorouracil. It is a backbone of treatment for bowel cancer and a standard option in advanced breast cancer.
No trial record is attached to this row yet. The trials tab lists what is recruiting and the landmark trials for this cancer.
Add these to your appointment list, or take the full question set for this cancer.
Pancreatoduodenectomy or distal pancreatectomy with venous resection and reconstruction where needed, arterial resection only in specialist centres; proceed on stable or improved disease with falling CA 19-9.
Surgeons operate through small incisions using robotic arms with tremor-free precision and 3D vision.
No trial record is attached to this row yet. The trials tab lists what is recruiting and the landmark trials for this cancer.
Add these to your appointment list, or take the full question set for this cancer.
Complete six months of chemotherapy in total, usually with the regimen the tumour responded to.
FOLFIRINOX is a four-drug chemotherapy combination that, in 2011, became the first treatment to meaningfully extend life in metastatic pancreatic cancer; it is now the standard before and after surgery.
Gemcitabine plus nab-paclitaxel is the gentler of the two standard chemotherapy backbones for pancreatic cancer, and the base on which most new drugs are being tested.
A versatile chemotherapy used in pancreatic, bladder, lung, ovarian, breast and biliary cancers, in nasopharyngeal cancer, and as a bladder instillation.
Capecitabine (Xeloda) is a tablet form of the chemotherapy fluorouracil. It is a backbone of treatment for bowel cancer and a standard option in advanced breast cancer.
No trial record is attached to this row yet. The trials tab lists what is recruiting and the landmark trials for this cancer.
No side-effect rates or interaction flags are recorded for these options yet. The side-effect lookup and interaction checker cover the products that have them.
Add these to your appointment list, or take the full question set for this cancer.
Manage as locally advanced or metastatic disease; switch chemotherapy backbone, RAS inhibitor trials, biliary stenting for jaundice.
NALIRIFOX is a version of FOLFIRINOX using a liposome-wrapped irinotecan, approved in 2024 as a first-line option for metastatic pancreatic cancer.
The first drug that blocks all active RAS variants, approved by the FDA in August 2026 for metastatic pancreatic cancer, where KRAS drives 90% of tumours.
A small tube placed by endoscope or through the skin reopens a blocked bile duct, relieving jaundice so chemotherapy can be given.
No trial record is attached to this row yet. The trials tab lists what is recruiting and the landmark trials for this cancer.
Add these to your appointment list, or take the full question set for this cancer.