Knowledge shows a divergence of results between preclinical and clinical studies regarding anesthesia and postoperative progression of cancer. While laboratory and animal data from then 2000s onwards raised much enthusiasm in this field of research leading to several clinical investigations worldwide, data from randomized trials seem to have killed off hope for many scientists. However several aspects of the actual knowledge should be reevaluated and there is space for new strategies of investigation. In this paper, we perform a critical review of actual knowledge and propose new research strategies with a special focus on anesthetic management and repurposed anesthetic adjuvants for pancreatic cancer.
Keywords: anesthesia; cancer; epigenetics; ketorolac; lidocaine; miRNA; pancreatic cancer; propofol; propranolol; repurposing drugs; sevoflurane.