Chemotherapy in Inoperable Pancreatic Cancer

Both the low level of operability and the very short median survival of patients with carcinoma of the exocrine pancreas are well known. These observations induce contrasting attitudes. On the one hand the short survival has encouraged the use of non-operative stenting for malignant jaundice to reduce time in hospital, on the other the feeling persists that even a modest increase in survival would be worth having in order to give the patient and the family a little more time.