People given chemotherapy for the deadly cancer suffered by actor Patrick Swayze have higher chances of survival, researchers have said.
Pancreatic cancer has a poor prognosis, with only 2% to 3% of patients surviving for five years or more.
Dirty Dancing star Swayze has described his battle with the disease and said receiving chemotherapy was "hell on wheels".
The new research found that patients given chemotherapy after surgery for operable pancreatic cancer had a 30% higher chance of living than those who just had surgery.
The patients were given the drug 5FU, which is available on the NHS, alongside folinic acid after surgery and had a five-year survival rate of 24%. This compared with 14% for those who only had surgery.
The study, published in the British Journal of Cancer and funded by Cancer Research UK, examined the results of three clinical trials covering more than 450 patients. It confirms previous research which suggests patients who had surgery and chemotherapy had better a chance of survival .
Professor John Neoptolemos, lead researcher based at the University of Liverpool, said: "Pancreatic cancer continues to be one of the hardest cancers to treat and has very low survival rates.
"These results show that chemotherapy after surgery is the best way to treat patients, giving people precious extra months or even years of life.
"There is still a long way to go before we can really reduce the number of people that die from the disease but this research moves us in the right direction.
"The next step will be to investigate different combinations of drugs to see if they work any better than this treatment."
