Irreversible electroporation for treatment of locally advanced pancreatic cancer

Objective To evaluate the overall survival in patients with locally advanced pancreatic cancer (LAC) treated with irreversible electroporation (IRE) and chemotherapy. Methods A retrospective study on the overall survival of 30 patients with LAC treated with IRE, and 30 patients with LAC treated with chemotherapy from July 2015 to October 2016 in the PLA General Hospital was conducted. Results For the 30 patients with LAC who underwent IRE successfully, there were 21 women and 9 men. The median age was 59 (36~81) years. Twenty-four patients had primary pancreatic head cancer and 6 had body cancer. Twelve (40.0%) of these patients had chemotherapy after the IRE ablation. The 90-day mortality in the IRE treated patients was 3 (10.0%). For the 30 patients with LAC who were treated with chemotherapy, the 90-day mortality was 6 (20.0%). In comparison of the IRE treated patients with the chemotherapy treated patients, improvements on disease-free survival (6 months vs. 4 months, P<0.05) and overall survival (11 months vs. 5.6 months, P<0.05) were observed. Conclusion IRE ablation of LAC was safe and could potentially improve overall survival when compared with the standard chemotherapy treatment. Key words: Irreversible electroporation; Locally advanced pancreatic cancer; Safety; Efficacy