Pancreatic carcinoma is usually diagnosed late, when treatment options are limited and is considered as chemo-resistant malignancy. However, early stage, good performance status, and specific patient subgroup are thought to have a more favorable prognosis.
Search for novel molecular biomarkers, which could predict the treatment resistance, represents a major opportunity, but also a challenge in further research. This review summarizes most aspects of individualized therapy of pancreatic cancer including promising biomarkers, BRCA-deficient pancreatic cancer and its etiology.
It may be estimated that nearly a third of metastatic PDAC patients could have benefit with other treatment than gold standard chemotherapy. Thus, other aspects of individualized approach concerning the main factors for the choice of the best therapy for individual pancreatic cancer patient (surgery and chemotherapy), as well as the future directions (target therapy and immunotherapy), are also addressed.