Pancreatic cancer immunotherapy: coming of age

Pancreatic cancer remains a deadly disease that kills ~40,000 Americans each year (1). The death rate from pancreatic cancer is steadily increasing and is anticipated to surpass that from prostate and breast cancer in the next two decades (2). The absence of any early detection markers as well as the lack of effective drugs has kept the survival rates from pancreatic cancer at <7% (3). This makes pancreatic cancer the only malignancy with an overall survival (OS) rate in single digit. This disease is therapy resistant and radiotherapy provides only modest benefits (4). Surgery is potentially the only curative treatment, however, the limited number of patients (<20%) that are eligible for surgical resection develop recurrences and succumb to the disease (5).