For a long time, approximately since Oberlin and Guerin described the multifocal origin of pancreatic cancers and precancerous pancreatic lesions, no important study dealing with the entire subject of pancreatic cancer has been published in France and probably in the international literature. For some decades the knowl edge acquired 40years or more ago was not improved appreciably, though the fre quency ofthe disease started to increase in occidental countries. This has recently changed, and the progress ofthe medical sciences has spread to the pancreas. Although the surgical or medical...