Current challenges and opportunities for chemoprevention of pancreatic cancer

Background: The incidence of pancreatic cancer (PC) is rising in parallel with the deaths caused by this malignant disease largely due to limited improvement in current treatment strategies. In spite of aggressive PC research, for the past three decades, there has been no significant improvement in the five-year survival for this cancer. Like many other cancers, it takes several years for normal pancreatic cells to transform into pancreatic precursor lesions and to further progress into invasive carcinoma. Hence there is a scope for the development of chemo-preventive strategies to inhibit/ delay/prevent progression of this disease into an advanced stage cancer. Objective: Chemoprevention of pancreatic cancer. Method: Review of published literature. Results and Conclusion: Availability of various genetically engineered mouse (GEM) models of PC has led to accelerated progress in understanding the disease and developing intervention strategies otherwise stalled for a long time. These GEM models spontaneously develop PC in a stepwise manner and mimic the disease etiology in humans. Understanding PC development from initiation to progression to metastasis is very important for early detection and prevention of PC. In this review, we focus on the current situation, the potential challenges, the progress in existing strategies and available opportunities as well as suggest key areas for research within the increasingly important area of pancreatic cancer chemoprevention.