Pancreatic Cancers: A Review of Studies from Pakistan and Comparison with Global Trends

Abstract

The objective of this review article is to discuss clinical data from studies on Pakistani pancreatic cancer population and its comparison with international data. This review article will allow researchers to identify gaps in the data and hence to design further research in order to address these gaps accordingly. Search was carried out via Google Scholar, PubMed and PakMediNet search engines using keywords “Pancreatic cancers”, “Pancreatic adenocarcinoma” and “Pakistan”. Pancreatic cancers are one of the most lethal cancers globally. Statistics show that 97.8% of cases of pancreatic cancers in Pakistan have led to mortality. For various cancers around the world, epidemiological data has been used for development of diagnostic tools and therapies. Despite the alarming situation of pancreatic cancers in Pakistan, only limited work has been done in this area. Majority of the studies are based exclusively on reporting of clinical data. Pakistan has not been able to even gather sufficient data to proceed research based on association of molecular aspects of tumor with clinical characteristics. On the contrary, researchers, scientists and clinicians from other parts of the world are already working on association studies, prediction of prognosis, treatment selection and improving the survival of their population. It is an immense need of the situation that molecular based studies are carried out on Pakistani pancreatic cancer population so that diagnosis, prognosis, treatment and survival of these patients can be made better.