Pancreatic cancer has been increasingly diagnosed in the recent decades.
Although the cornerstone treatment for pancreatic cancer is surgery, unfortunately, only
15-20% has a resectable disease at the time of initial diagnosis. Owing to the majority
of patients having either locally advanced diseases or metastases, chemotherapy plays
an important role in the management of pancreatic cancer. Because conventional
chemotherapy has its limitations in the management of pancreatic cancer, recently
developed molecular targeted therapy has emerged as an important modality of
treatment of the disease. Drugs targeting growth factors such as epidermal growth
factor and anti-angiogenesis have been studied and have promising results. Some of
these drugs such as erlotinib have been already approved for the treatment of pancreatic
cancer. Newer drugs such as those targeting hedgehog signaling pathway are now
being tested. In this chapter, we will comprehensively review the current and also the
latest development of anti-pancreatic cancer drugs.
Keywords: Angiogenesis, Chemotherapy, Growth factors, Molecular, Pancreatic
cancer.