In this paper the late results after operative therapy of biliopancreatic carcinomas will be presented. Tumors of this region have many things in common. That's why we investigated the 4 tumor entities together. We studied the case histories of 434 patients treated between 1981 and 1997. We analysed the in- and outpatient data of the "Klinikum der Stadt Gera", documents of the tumor board and informations that were obtained from the ambulatory treating physicians. 283 patients suffered from pancreatic carcinoma, 50 from bile duct carcinoma, 60 from gallbladder carcinoma and 41 from carcinoma of the papilla Vateri. The survival rates after curative or palliative operative therapy of the 4 tumor entities were calculated according to Kaplan-Meier. The rate of curative operations and the 5-year-survival-rate after curative resection were 32.8% and 19.0%, resp. in pancreatic carcinoma, 28.0% and 49.0% in bile duct carcinoma, 26.7% and 50.0% in gallbladder carcinoma and 71.0% and 44.0% in carcinoma of the papilla Vateri. Due to the higher resection rate the overall results in patients with carcinoma of the papilla Vateri were much better than the results in the other analysed cancers. Up to now resection is the only way to cure the 4 entities of malignant tumors of the biliopancreatic region.