Pancreatic cancer chemoradiotherapy

Pancreatic cancer is the most lethal gastrointestinal tumour. Chemotherapy is the mainstay of therapy in the majority of the patients whereas resection is the only chance of cure but only possible in 15–20% of all patients. The integration of radiotherapy into multimodal treatment concepts is heavily investigated. It is now commonly accepted that induction chemotherapy should precede radiotherapy. When fractionated conventionally it should be given as chemoradiotherapy. Recently, stereotactic body radiotherapy emerged as an alternative, but will have to be carefully investigated in clinical trials. This review aims to give an overview of radiotherapeutic strategies with a focus on the latest developments in the field in the context of chemotherapy and surgery.