ABSTRACT
The incidence of pancreatic carcinoma has tripled over the past 40 years throughout the western world. It occurs most commonly in men over the age of 60. It has one of the lowest survival rates of all cancers (1-2% at 5 years), and the mean survival at the time of diagnosis is <6 months. Symptoms are often vague and non-specific in the early stages and no diagnostic tests exist which are able to detect early (potentially curable) tumours.
