Case Report
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2020. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Clin Cases. Jan 26, 2020; 8(2): 390-397
Published online Jan 26, 2020. doi: 10.12998/wjcc.v8.i2.390
Irreversible electroporation for liver metastasis from pancreatic cancer: A case report
Yang-Yang Ma, Juan-Juan Shi, Ji-Bing Chen, Ke-Chen Xu, Li-Zhi Niu
Yang-Yang Ma, Ji-Bing Chen, Central Laboratory, Fuda Cancer Hospital, Jinan University, Guangzhou 510665, Guangdong Province, China
Juan-Juan Shi, Ke-Chen Xu, Li-Zhi Niu, Department of Oncology, Fuda Cancer Hospital, Jinan University, Guangzhou 510665, Guangdong Province, China
Author contributions: Niu LZ and Xu KC designed the research; Shi JJ and Niu LZ performed the research; Chen JB analyzed the data; Ma YY wrote the paper.
Informed consent statement: Written informed consent was obtained from the patient for publication of this report and any accompanying images.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.
CARE Checklist (2016) statement: The authors have read the CARE Checklist (2016), and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the CARE Checklist (2016).
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/
Corresponding author: Li-Zhi Niu, MD, PhD, Chief Physician, Department of Oncology, Fuda Cancer Hospital, Jinan University, No. 2, Tangde Road, Tianhe District, Guangzhou 510665, Guangdong Province, China. niuboshi@fudahospital.com
Received: October 24, 2019
Peer-review started: October 24, 2019
First decision: December 5, 2019
Revised: December 23, 2019
Accepted: January 2, 2020
Article in press: January 2, 2020
Published online: January 26, 2020
Abstract
BACKGROUND

Pancreatic cancer has a poor prognosis; 40%–50% of patients have liver metastases at the time of initial diagnosis and only 15%–20% undergo surgical resection. Irreversible electroporation (IRE) is a new, non-thermal local ablation method for solid tumors, which can induce cell membrane permeabilization, resulting in unrecoverable nanoscale perforation and apoptotic cell death without damaging the structural components of tissues.

CASE SUMMARY

We report the case of a 66-year-old female patient with liver metastasis from pancreatic cancer with a pathological diagnosis of poorly differentiated adenocarcinoma. Carbohydrate antigen 19-9 was elevated to 420.3 U/mL. Computed tomography showed a pancreas mass of 2.7 cm × 2.5 cm and single liver metastasis of 1.4 cm × 1.1 cm in the S6 area. The patient underwent IRE and arterial infusion chemotherapy and received tegafur. The therapeutic effect of the combination treatment has been evaluated as complete response. To date, the patient has survived for > 12 mo and is receiving tegafur as maintenance therapy (at the time this case report was written).

CONCLUSION

IRE plus arterial infusion chemotherapy and tegafur may be synergistic, providing a reference for treating liver metastasis from pancreatic cancer.

Keywords: Irreversible electroporation, Liver metastasis from pancreatic cancer, Chemotherapy, Complete response, Case report

Core tip: In this study, we report the case of a 66-year-old female patient with liver metastasis from pancreatic cancer who underwent irreversible electroporation and chemotherapy and showed a complete response after the combination therapy. Our findings suggest that irreversible electroporation plus arterial infusion chemotherapy and tegafur may be synergistic, providing a reference for treating liver metastasis from pancreatic cancer.