Key points of clinical trials of pancreatitis: enlightenment from ESCAPE study

The clinical trial is a crucial part of the clinical study. High level medical evidence, getting from the clinical trial, can guide the clinical practice. Compared with pancreatic cancer, the number of clinical trials of pancreatitis is still less as it is a special and complicated disease. The ESCAPE study, initiated by the Dutch pancreatitis research group, was a prospective, multicenter, randomized clinical trial to find the best approach for patients with painful chronic pancreatitis. The results of ESCAPE study were published on the Journal of the American Medical Association in 2020. ESCAPE study is a paradigm for clinical trial of pancreatitis from trial design, study implementation and result analysis. This paper not only focuses on the latest results of ESCAPE study, but also summarizes the key points and problems of clinical trials of pancreatitis. It is extremely urgent to launch clinical trials of pancreatitis widely and canonically, which is helpful to increase the influence of China in the field of pancreas.