doi: 10.5732/cjc.012.10093

Efficacy of minimally invasive therapies on unresectable pancreatic cancer

Zhi-Mei Huang, Chang-Chuan Pan, Pei-Hong Wu, Ming Zhao, Wang Li, Zi-Lin Huang, Rui-Yang Yi

State Key Loboratory of Oncology in South China, Division of Medical Imaging and Interventional Radiology, Sun Yat-sen University Cancer Center, Guangzhou, Guangdong 510060, P. R. China

[Abstract] For patients with unresectable pancreatic cancer, current chemotherapies have negligible survival benefits. Thus, developing effective minimally invasive therapies is currently underway. This study was conducted to evaluate the efficacy of transarterial chemoembolization plus radiofrequency ablation and/or 125I radioactive seed implantation on unresectable pancreatic cancer. We analyzed the outcome of 71 patients with unresectable pancreatic carcinoma who underwent chemoembolization plus radiofrequency ablation and/or radioactive seed implantation. Of the 71 patients, the median survival was 11 months, and the 1-, 2-, and 3-year overall survival rates were 32.4%, 9.9%, and 6.6%, respectively. Patients who had no metastasis, who had oligonodular liver metastases (≤3 lesions), and who had multinodular liver metastases (>3 lesions) had median survival of 12, 18, and 8 months, respectively, and 1-year overall survival rates of 50.0%, 68.8%, and 5.7%, respectively. Although the survival of patients without liver metastases was worse than that of patients with oligonodular liver metastasis, the result was not significant (P = 0.239). In contrast, the metastasis-negative patients had significantly better survival than did patients with multinodular liver metastases (P < 0.001). Patients with oligonodular liver lesions had a significanthg longer median survival than did patients with multinodular lesions (P < 0.001). In conclusion, combined minimally invasive therapies had good efficacy on unresectable pancreatic cancer and resulted in a good control of liver metastases. In addition, the number of liver metastases was a significant factor in predicting prognosis and response to treatment.

Chinese Journal of Cancer 2013, Volume: 32, Issue 6, Page: 334-341

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Zhi-Mei Huang, Chang-Chuan Pan, Pei-Hong Wu, Ming Zhao, Wang Li, Zi-Lin Huang, Rui-Yang Yi. Efficacy of minimally invasive therapies on unresectable pancreatic cancer. Chin J Cancer. 2013, 32(6):334-341. doi:10.5732/cjc.012.10093


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