Worldwide, there are an estimated 232, 000 new cases of pancreatic cancer annually. In the United States, it is the fourth leading cause of cancer death, and approximately 30, 000 people die of pancreatic cancer each year. The disease is difficult to diagnose in its early stages, and most patients have incurable disease by the time they present with symptoms. The overall 5-year survival rate for this disease is less than 5%.In organizing this handbook, Dr. Neoptolemos and his co-editors will produce a distinguished Major Reference Work devoted to pancreatic cancer. This handbook will have widespread appeal among clinicians, pathologists and basic scientists who are now struggling to understand this complex and rapidly expanding field.Because of the recent and vast growth in both the clinical and scientific research being done in pancreatic cancer (there is currently an unprecedented investment by academia and industry in this field), each researcher s knowledge of other specialty areas outside his or her own is now often quite limited. The aim of this book is to place these the tangible advances those that are indispensable to all working on pancreatic cancer readily at hand. The book will focus on advances that will not become dated, and the editors will choose authors who are the very best in each area.