Intraoperative Brachytherapy in Pancreatic Cancer

Abstract

There is a recent increased incidence of cancer of the pancreas that is more marked in men. Over 21,000 patients per year develop this disease. It currently ranks as the fourth most common cause of cancer-related mortality in the United States and is the second most common gastrointestinal malignancy (1,2). Because of its inaccessible location in the body, lesions are not diagnosed until they are quite advanced. As a result, survival rates are low, with less than 2% of patients surviving 5 years (1). The death rate from cancer of the pancreas has risen from 10/100,000 in 1940 to 40/100,000 in 1960, to greater than 70/100,000 in the 1980s.