A nomogram for predicting survival of patients with locally advanced pancreatic cancer treated with chemoradiotherapy: an editorial comment

Pancreatic cancer remains one of the most aggressive malignancies which has a mortality nearly parallel to incidence. In the United States, for example, statistics from the National Cancer Institute’s Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) Program estimates 55,440 new cases of pancreatic cancer in the U.S. in 2018, with 44,330 estimated deaths (1). Based on data collected from 2008–2014, only 8.5% of patients survive 5 years or longer (1). It is widely held that a combination of surgical resection and systemic chemotherapy provides the optimal treatment for pancreatic cancer. Unfortunately, only about 15–20% of patients present with resectable disease.