The treatment of choice for main-duct IPMNs is resection due to approximately 50% chance of malignancy. Side-branch IPMNs are occasionally monitored with regular CT or MRIs, but most are eventually resected, with a 30% rate of malignancy in these resected tumors. Survival 5 years after resection of an IPMN without malignancy is approximately 80%, 85% with malignancy but no lymph node spread and 0% with malignancy spreading to lymph nodes. Surgery can include the removal of the head of the pancreas (a pancreaticoduodenectomy), removal of the body and tail of the pancreas (a distal pancreatectomy), or rarely removal of the entire pancreas (a total pancreatectomy). In selected cases the surgery can be performed using minimally invasive techniques such as laparoscopy or robotic surgery. A study using Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Result Registry (SEER) data suggested that increased lymph node counts harvested during the surgery were associated with better survival in invasive IPMN patients.

Intraductal papillary mucinous neoplasm (IPMN) is a type of tumor that can occur within the cells of the pancreatic duct. IPMN tumors produce mucus, and this mucus can form pancreatic cysts. Although intraductal papillary mucinous neoplasms are benign tumors, they can progress to pancreatic cancer. As such IPMN is viewed as a precancerous condition. Once an intraductal papillary mucinous neoplasm has been found, the management options include close monitoring and pre-emptive surgery.

Worldwide efforts on many levels are underway to understand pancreatic cancer, but progress has been slow, particularly into understanding the disease's causes. There are several fundamental unanswered questions. The nature of the changes that lead to the disease are being intensely investigated, such as the roles played by genes such as "KRAS" and "p53". A key question is the timing of events as the disease develops and progresses – particularly the role of diabetes, and how and when the disease spreads.

Research on early detection is ongoing. For instance, the European Registry of Hereditary Pancreatitis and Familial Pancreatic Cancer (EUROPAC) trial is aiming to determine whether regular screening is appropriate for people with a family history of the disease, or who have hereditary pancreatitis. The knowledge that new onset of diabetes can be an early sign of the disease could facilitate timely diagnosis and prevention if a workable screening strategy can be developed.

Another area of interest is in assessing whether keyhole surgery (laparoscopy) would be better than Whipple's procedure in treating the disease surgically, particularly in terms of recovery time. Irreversible electroporation is a relatively novel ablation technique that has shown promise in downstaging and prolonging survival in persons with locally advanced disease. It is especially suitable for treatment of tumors that are in proximity to peri-pancreatic vessels without risk of vascular trauma. The limited success of outcomes after surgery has led to a number of trials that were running in 2014 to test outcomes using chemotherapy or radiochemotherapy before surgery. This had previously not been found to be helpful, but is being trialed again, using drug combinations which have emerged from the many trials of post-operative therapies, such as FOLFIRINOX.

Efforts are underway to develop new drugs. Some of these involve targeted therapies against the cancer cells' molecular mechanisms. Others aim to target the highly resistant cancer stem cells. Still others aim to affect the non-neoplastic stroma and microenvironment of the tumor, which is known to influence cell proliferation and metastasis. A further approach involves the use of immunotherapy, such as oncolytic viruses.

Apart from not smoking, the American Cancer Society recommends keeping a healthy weight, and increasing consumption of fruits, vegetables, and whole grains, while decreasing consumption of red and processed meat, although there is no consistent evidence this will prevent or reduce pancreatic cancer specifically. A 2014 review of research concluded that there was evidence that consumption of citrus fruits and curcumin reduced risk of pancreatic cancer, while there was possibly a beneficial effect from whole grains, folate, selenium, and non-fried fish.

In the general population, screening of large groups is not currently considered effective, although newer techniques, and the screening of tightly targeted groups, are being evaluated. Nevertheless, regular screening with endoscopic ultrasound and MRI/CT imaging is recommended for those at high risk from inherited genetics.