Nonoperative Ablation of Pancreatic Neoplasms

Pancreatic cancer is a poor prognostic tumor and about 20% of patients are eligible for surgical resection at the time of diagnosis. Recently, minimally invasive procedures have provided promising results as a therapeutic option for locally advanced unresectable pancreatic cancer. In particular, high-intensity focused ultrasound is an emerging noninvasive thermally ablative procedure that may have a dominant role in the future. Although the clinical applications of minimally invasive therapies to pancreatic cancers are still in their infancy, the results at present are promising.