Performance status of patients is the major prognostic factor at all stages of pancreatic cancer

Background The aim of this study was to identify and evaluate the clinicopathologic factors and to elucidate the clinical importance of performance status on the outcome of patients with pancreatic cancer. Materials and method The data of 335 patients with histologically confirmed diagnosis of pancreatic cancer who were treated and followed up between 2000 and 2010 were recorded from medical charts. Results The median age of the patients was 59 years (range 25–88 years) and 226 (67.5 %) were male. The study group comprised localized disease (18 %), locally advanced disease (36 %) and metastatic disease (46 %). The median survival of all patients was 280 days and the 4-year survival rate was 5 %. Univariate analysis indicated that initial poor performance status of patients (PS 2–4) was significantly associated with shorter survival in localized ( p = 0.015), locally advanced ( p = 0.01), metastatic stage ( p