Adenosquamous carcinoma is rare, accounting for 3%-4% of all
pancreatic carcinoma cases. These
tumors are characterized by the presence of variable proportions of
mucin-producing glandular elements and squamous components, the latter of which should account for at least 30% of the
tumor tissue. Recently, several reports have described cases of
adenosquamous carcinoma of the pancreas. However, as the number of patients who undergo resection at a single institute is limited, large studies describing the clinicopathological features, therapeutic management, and surgical outcome for
adenosquamous carcinoma of the pancreas are lacking. We performed a literature review of English articles retrieved from Medline using the keywords 'pancreas' and '
adenosquamous carcinoma'. Additional articles were obtained from references within the papers identified by the Medline search. Our subsequent review of the literature revealed that optimal
adjuvant chemotherapy and/or
radiotherapy regimens for
adenosquamous carcinoma of the pancreas have not been established, and that curative surgical resection offers the only chance for long-term survival. Unfortunately, the prognosis of the 39 patients who underwent pancreatic resection for
adenosquamous carcinoma was very poor, with a 3-year overall survival rate of 14.0% and a median survival time of 6.8 mo. Since the postoperative prognosis of
adenosquamous carcinoma of the pancreas is currently worse than that of pancreatic
adenocarcinoma, new adjuvant
chemotherapies and/or radiation techniques should be investigated as they may prove indispensible to the improvement of surgical outcomes.