Pancreatic Cancer is a devastating disease with an increasing incidence in Western countries. It is the fourth leading cause of cancer death in both men and women.

The disease is characterized by a lack of symptoms at an early and more curable stage. The location of the pancreas, deep in the abdomen, has hampered early detection. Despite progress in imaging techniques, most cancers smaller than 1 cm remain undetected. Since symptoms occur late, patients with pancreatic cancer usually present at an advanced disease stage.

The majority of patients have disease that has spread outside of the pancreas to nearby lymph nodes or other tissues by the time of their first clinical visit. Very few of the patients diagnosed with pancreatic cancer have been found to be operable and even in these patients the postoperative five-year survival rate has remained low because of the extremely high rate of recurrence. Pancreatic Cancer has been resistant to all conventional and modern therapies available. Despite intense research in this area, the prognosis of patients with pancreatic cancer has remained dismal.

Advances in molecular biological technologies have not yet significantly improved the clinical outcome. Differences in the reporting and performance of diagnostic techniques, surgical methods, and preoperative and post-operative management contribute to inability to adequately compare and pool data to improve the clinical management of pancreatic cancer patients. The collection and storage of patient information from different clinics around the world are not standardized, which has led to inconsistencies and controversy.