Pancreatic cancer currently carries with it a poor prognosis. This is, in part, due to the fact that early stage disease is relatively symptom-free. Most cases are therefore diagnosed at later stages. Without active treatment the median survival length is around 3 to 5 months which extends to around 11 to 15 months with proper treatment(1). Due to the generally late diagnoses, more than 80% of the cancers are not treatable via surgery. Although diagnosis methods are becoming more advanced every year, the American Cancer Society estimates that in the year 2010, 43,140 people will be diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and there will be 36,800 deaths.(2) These statistics make pancreatic cancer the 4th overall cause of cancer related deaths in the U.S.
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