Immunotherapy and Pancreatic Cancer

Pancreatic cancer is an aggressive and highly lethal form of pancreatic malignancy which is the fourth leading cause of cancer-related deaths in men and women in the USA. According to the American Cancer Society in 2014, it was estimated that about 46,420 people (23,530 men and 22,890 women) were diagnosed of pancreatic cancer. Additionally, in the same year about 39,590 people (20,170 men and 19,420 women) died of pancreatic cancer. It is highly observed men over women and also common with increasing age. The availability of new technology in diagnosis helps in the early detection of the pancreatic cancer. These technologies will serve as the primary requirement for management of disease. The exact cause of pancreatic cancer is not known, several risk factors had been indicated leading to pancreatic cancer. Immunotherapy has been a promising development in the past few years. The recent activities have increased the understanding of the tumor microenvironment, various immunotherapeutic modalities or combination therapy (such as chemotherapy with immunotherapy) had been applied in clinical trial. Additionally, the effects of such modalities in combination with immunotherapy in cancer patients are in still exploratory phase.