Incidence and Survival Trends of Pancreatic Cancer in Girona: Impact of the Change in Patient Care in the Last 25 Years

(1) Background: We investigated the incidence and survival trends for pancreatic cancer (PC) over the last 25 years in the Girona region, Catalonia, Spain; (2) Methods: Data were extracted from the population-based Girona Cancer Registry. Incident PC cases during 1994-2015 were classified using the International Classification of Diseases for Oncology Third Edition (ICD-O-3). Incidence rates age-adjusted to the European standard population (ASR_E) and world standard population (ASR_W) were obtained. Trends were assessed using the estimated annual percentage of change (EAPC) of the ASR_E13. Observed and relative survivals (RS) were estimated with the Kaplan-Meier and Pohar Perme methods, respectively; (3) Results: We identified 1602 PC incident cases. According to histology, 44.4% of cases were exocrine PC, 4.1% neuroendocrine, and 51.1% malignant-non-specified. The crude incidence rate (CR) for PC was 11.43 cases-per-100,000 inhabitants/year. A significant increase of incidence with age and over the study period was observed. PC overall 5-year RS was 7.05% (95% confidence interval (CI) 5.63; 8.84). Longer overall survival was observed in patients with neuroendocrine tumours (5-year RS 61.45%; 95% CI 47.47; 79.55). Trends in 5-year RS for the whole cohort rose from 3.27% (95% CI 1.69-6.35) in 1994-1998 to 13.1% (95% CI 9.98; 17.2) in 2010-2015; (4) Conclusions: Incidence rates of PC in Girona have increased in the last two decades. There is a moderate but encouraging increase in survival thorough the study period. These results can be used as baseline for future research.