New methodsClinical endoscopyInitial experience of EUS-guided radiofrequency ablation of unresectable pancreatic cancer
Section snippets
Patients and methods
We obtained permission from the Institutional Review Board of each center and performed prospective data collection. A total of 6 consecutive patients were included in the study between February 2013 and March 2014. The inclusion criteria were (1) histologically confirmed pancreatic cancer, (2) unresectable stage due to locally advanced or metastasis disease, and (3) resistance to a previous treatment modality. The exclusion criteria were (1) advanced heart or lung disease precluding adequate
Results
EUS-RFA was performed successfully on all 6 patients. The median age of the patients was 62 years (range 43-73 years), and the male to female ratio was 1:5 (Table 1). Pancreatic cancer was located in the pancreas head in 4 patients and in the pancreas body in 2 patients. The median diameter of the tumor was 3.8 cm (range 3-9 cm). All of the pancreatic cancers were unresectable; 4 patients had locally advanced disease and 2 had metastasis. After the procedure, 2 patients experienced mild
Discussion
Until now, the feasibility and safety of EUS-RFA for the treatment of advanced pancreatic cancer has not been addressed. EUS can be used to target the area of ablation, and it ensures safety by avoiding damage to the surrounding structure.3 Our preliminary experience demonstrated that EUS-RFA for pancreatic cancer was well-tolerated and had no significant adverse events.6
The pancreas is a highly thermosensitive organ, and the thermal ablation of normal pancreatic tissue may lead to inflammation
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DISCLOSURE: This study was supported by a grant (2014-201) from the Asan Institute for Life Sciences, Asan Medical Center, Seoul, South Korea (Dr Seo). All authors disclosed no financial relationships relevant to this publication.