Pancreatic cancer is a highly lethal malignancy that responds poorly to current treatments and therefore has a dismal survival rate. Current progress in experimental molecular techniques has enabled detailed understanding of the molecular processes of pancreatic cancer development. Understanding of the molecular pathology should promote the development of new methodology for early diagnosis of pancreatic cancer, facilitate improvement in current approaches for pancreatic cancer treatment and improve its prognosis. Here, the authors present the current knowledge about the molecular alterations found in pancreatic cancer.