Patients with pancreatic cancer should first undergo an accurate and comprehensive resectability assessment so as to choose a reasonable and effective treatment. Radical surgical resection is still the only treatment method that can be expected to cure pancreatic cancer, and for those who are considered to be surgically resectable, they should be actively treated surgically. For patients who are not suitable for surgical resection, reasonable and effective palliative treatment methods should be actively adopted for patients with clinical symptoms such as obstructive jaundice, gastric output tract (duodenal) obstruction and pain, in the hope of improving the quality of life and effectively preventing or alleviating patients’ pain and related clinical symptoms. For patients with advanced pancreatic cancer who are not suitable for radical surgical resection, the indications for palliative surgical treatment are a hot issue discussed in clinical work for a long time. The main purpose of palliative care is to improve the quality of life of patients with life-threatening disease and to effectively prevent or relieve pain and clinical symptoms. In patients with advanced pancreatic cancer, the following three clinical symptoms in combination require active palliative care: obstructive jaundice, gastric output tract (duodenal) obstruction and pain.