Pancreatic cancer has the characteristics of high malignancy, early dissemination within the pancreas,extrapancreatic nerve plexus invasion, lymph node metastasis and vascular invasion. The 5-year survival rate of pancreatic cancer patients was under 5% even for those who had undergone surgical resection. Based on the review of the literatures including 42 pancreatic cancer patients who survived for 5-20 years after the operation, we concluded that curative resection of pancreatic cancer was still a reliable means in achieving long-term survival; factors influencing the results of resection of pancreatic cancer were lymph nodes involvement, poor differentiated tumor, extrapancreatic nerve plexus invasion, tumor size, residual tumor, curative resection and adjuvant chemotherapy; early diagnosis, aggressive surgery for patients with indications of resection, appropriate surgical procedure and postoperative adjuvant chemotherapy are essential factors to ensure a long term survival of patients with pancreatic cancer.