This volume consists of contributors to the Pacabrum '95 Meeting on Pancreatic Cancer, March 1995, Birmingham. The chapters represent comprehensive scientific advances rather that symposium proceedings. Pancreatic cancer is the fourth commonest cause of cancer death in Europe and North America and its incidence appears to be on the increase. Due to its rapid growth and silent course, diagnosis is often only established in the advanced stages, resulting is a poor prognosis. In addition, it is one of the most aggressive malignancies; treatment of this disease, therefore, is a great challenge to clinicians world-wide. Whilst existing surgical and medical treatments have undergone much development in recent years, improving the outcome for many patients, there has been a great many advances in the understanding of the molecular and genetic basis of the disease, and the clinical applications of this knowledge to areas such as gene therapy. This book is divided into three sections covering each of these in turn: Molecular pathophysiology of pancreatic cancer; Genetic advances and their clinical applications; and Clinical management of pancreatic cancer. With international contributors, this title should provide a comprehensive overview of the current status of pancreatic cancer for both clinicians and researchers. It describes the latest developments in the clinic and the laboratory for this important tumour type. Advances in our understanding of the genetic and molecular events involved in the disease have led to improvements in diagnosis and assessment, as well as the prospect of novel therapies. Novel radiological techniques allow safer and more effective imaging and intervention for malignant obstruction while specialist surgical management now offers selected patients a real chance of cure. The international experts in each of these fields have produced a comprehensive and critical review which integrates the clinical problem with basic scientific research.