Immunotherapy in pancreatic adenocarcinoma—overcoming barriers to response

Pancreatic adenocarcinoma (PAC) remains one of the most lethal of human malignancies. It is the fourth leading cause of cancer-related death in the United States (1). Unfortunately, the only curative option is surgical resection. The majority of patients are diagnosed with advanced stage disease, and as such, for the large majority of patients, curative surgery is not an option. Despite significant advances in improvements in cancer therapy, mortality for pancreatic cancer has remained relatively unchanged (2). The mainstay of treatment for patients with advanced PAC remains systemic combination chemotherapy (3). Patient outcomes remain poor, with 5-year survival of less than 10%. Development of new therapies for PAC is greatly needed