Tonini V, Zanni M. Pancreatic cancer in 2025: Have we found a solution? World J Gastroenterol 2025; 31(43): 111433 [DOI: 10.3748/wjg.v31.i43.111433]
Corresponding Author of This Article
Valeria Tonini, MD, Adjunct Associate Professor, Department of Medical and Surgical Sciences, University of Bologna, Via Massarenti 9, Bologna 40138, Emilia-Romagna, Italy. valeria.tonini@unibo.it
Research Domain of This Article
Gastroenterology & Hepatology
Article-Type of This Article
Review
Open-Access Policy of This Article
This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
World J Gastroenterol. Nov 21, 2025; 31(43): 111433 Published online Nov 21, 2025. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v31.i43.111433
Pancreatic cancer in 2025: Have we found a solution?
Valeria Tonini, Manuel Zanni
Valeria Tonini, Manuel Zanni, Department of Medical and Surgical Sciences, University of Bologna, Bologna 40138, Emilia-Romagna, Italy
Co-first authors: Valeria Tonini and Manuel Zanni.
Author contributions: Tonini V and Zanni M contributed equally to the writing of the manuscript.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.
Open Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Valeria Tonini, MD, Adjunct Associate Professor, Department of Medical and Surgical Sciences, University of Bologna, Via Massarenti 9, Bologna 40138, Emilia-Romagna, Italy. valeria.tonini@unibo.it
Received: June 30, 2025 Revised: July 28, 2025 Accepted: October 9, 2025 Published online: November 21, 2025 Processing time: 144 Days and 7.7 Hours
Abstract
Pancreatic cancer is still one of the neoplasms with the worst prognosis. Late presentation at an unresectable or metastatic stage precluding surgery, aggressive biology, and resistance to antiblastic drugs make this disease a formidable foe. The authors, following the path already traced by the previous review, investigate and summarize the breakthroughs of recent years concerning this lethal disease. Areas of progress include improving prevention and early detection strategies, refining molecular understanding of pancreatic cancer, identifying more effective systemic therapies, and improving quality of life and surgical outcomes. No less important is the technological aspect that looks primarily at artificial intelligence.
Core Tip: Pancreatic cancer is still one of the neoplasms with the worst prognosis. Late presentation at an unresectable or metastatic stage precluding surgery, aggressive biology, and resistance to antiblastic drugs make this disease a fearsome challenge. This review aims to investigate new strategies for early diagnosis and new therapeutic hopes for improving the still tragic outcomes.
