Pancreatic and Hepatic Oncology Research

Pancreatic and hepatic cancers rank among the most lethal malignancies, largely because they are rarely detected before they have spread and respond poorly to standard treatments. Researchers in this space work across a wide front: refining chemotherapy regimens like gemcitabine, mapping the dense stromal tissue that surrounds pancreatic tumors and shields them from drug delivery, and using genomic analyses to identify mutations that might be targeted therapeutically. Neoadjuvant therapy—treating patients with chemotherapy or radiation before surgery—has emerged as a promising strategy to shrink tumors and improve resection outcomes, though the optimal sequencing and patient selection remain unsettled. Central open questions include how to reprogram the immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment to make these cancers more vulnerable to immunotherapy, and how to reliably distinguish the growing number of incidentally found pancreatic cysts that warrant intervention from those that can be safely monitored.

Works

148,122

Total citations

2,138,682

Keywords

Pancreatic CancerSurgical ComplicationsGemcitabineTumor MicroenvironmentGenomic AnalysesChemotherapy