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Copyright ©The Author(s) 2016. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastroenterol. Jan 14, 2016; 22(2): 790-800
Published online Jan 14, 2016. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v22.i2.790
Advances in cryoablation for pancreatic cancer
Xiao-Mei Luo, Li-Zhi Niu, Ji-Bing Chen, Ke-Cheng Xu
Xiao-Mei Luo, Medical College, Jinan University, Guangzhou 510632, Guangdong Province, China
Li-Zhi Niu, Ji-Bing Chen, Ke-Cheng Xu, Guangzhou Fuda Cancer Hospital, School of Medicine, Jinan University, Guangzhou 510665, Guangdong Province, China
Author contributions: Xu KC designed the paper; Luo XM searched the literature data and wrote the paper; Chen JB searched the literature data and revised the paper; Niu LZ revised the paper.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Ke-Cheng Xu, MD, PhD, Guangzhou Fuda Cancer Hospital, School of Medicine, Jinan University, No. 2 Tangdexi Road, Tianhe District, Guangzhou 510665, Guangdong Province, China. xukc@vip.163.com
Telephone: +86-20-38993966 Fax: +86-20-38993950
Received: April 18, 2015
Peer-review started: April 20, 2015
First decision: June 23, 2015
Revised: July 7, 2015
Accepted: September 13, 2015
Article in press: September 13, 2015
Published online: January 14, 2016
Abstract

Pancreatic carcinoma is a common cancer of the digestive system with a poor prognosis. It is characterized by insidious onset, rapid progression, a high degree of malignancy and early metastasis. At present, radical surgery is considered the only curative option for treatment, however, the majority of patients with pancreatic cancer are diagnosed too late to undergo surgery. The sensitivity of pancreatic cancer to chemotherapy or radiotherapy is also poor. As a result, there is no standard treatment for patients with advanced pancreatic cancer. Cryoablation is generally considered to be an effective palliative treatment for pancreatic cancer. It has the advantages of minimal invasion and improved targeting, and is potentially safe with less pain to the patients. It is especially suitable in patients with unresectable pancreatic cancer. However, our initial findings suggest that cryotherapy combined with 125-iodine seed implantation, immunotherapy or various other treatments for advanced pancreatic cancer can improve survival in patients with unresectable or metastatic pancreatic cancer. Although these findings require further in-depth study, the initial results are encouraging. This paper reviews the safety and efficacy of cryoablation, including combined approaches, in the treatment of pancreatic cancer.

Keywords: Pancreatic cancer, Cryoablation, Combination therapy, Cryoimmunotherapy

Core tip: Pancreatic carcinoma is a devastating cancer of the digestive system. The majority of patients present too late to undergo radical surgery and there is no standard treatment for patients with advanced pancreatic cancer. Cryoablation is considered a palliative therapy in the treatment of pancreatic cancer; however, our results suggest that cryoablation may be an effective and safe treatment that can improve survival and quality of life in patients with unresectable or metastatic pancreatic cancer, particularly in combination with other modalities such as 125-iodine seed implantation and immunotherapy. As such, cryoablation may be a potential standard treatment for pancreatic cancer.