We have resected 34 carcinomas of head of the pancreas and seven of body and tail of the pancreas in the past 23 years. The one, three and five year survival rate of carcinoma of the pancreas after resection was 53, 20 and 9 per cent respectively. Duodenopancreatectomy is possibly a rational procedure to cure well-defined pancreatic cancer of head without capsular invasion, while total pancreatectomy has validity to be done for ill-defined pancreatic cancer or for carcinoma with positive capsular invasion. High incidence of vein invasion in histological sections and nearly one hundred per cent of liver metastases in postmortem examination of the patients whose malignancies were previously resected indicated negative aspect against surgical treatment.