HIFU for Palliative Treatment of Pancreatic Cancer

Pancreatic cancer is one of the deadliest malignancies, with only a 6 % 5-year survival rate and over 50 % of patients being diagnosed at the advanced stage. Current therapies are ineffective, and the treatment of patients with advanced disease is palliative. In the past decade, HIFU ablation has emerged as a modality for palliative treatment of pancreatic tumors. Multiple preclinical and non-randomized clinical trials have been performed to evaluate the safety and efficacy of this procedure. Substantial tumor-related pain reduction was achieved in most cases after HIFU treatment and few significant side effects were observed. In addition, some studies indicate that combination of HIFU ablation with chemotherapy may provide a survival benefit. This chapter summarizes the pre-clinical and clinical experience obtained to date in HIFU treatment of pancreatic tumors and discusses the challenges, limitations and new approaches in this modality.