

Prognosis of pancreatic cancer

The prognosis depends on whether the pancreatic cancer is localized, regional, or metastatic at the time of diagnosis. For pancreatic cancer, only 9.7% are diagnosed at the local stage and the 5-year survival for localized pancreatic cancer is 31.5%. In part because it is difficult to detect early, the average survival time from pancreatic cancer is low and the overall 5-year survival rate for pancreatic cancer patients during the period 2007-2013 was only 8.2%.

Because survival is poor, the population distribution of people who die of pancreatic cancer is similar to that of people who are diagnosed with the disease. Pancreatic cancer deaths is highest among people aged 75-84 and is the third leading cause of cancer death in the United States. Death rates have been stable over 2005-2014.

In 2014, there were an estimated 64,668 people living with pancreas cancer in the United States and in 2017 there are an estimated 43,090 people will die of this disease (2).

