Magnetic Resonance-guided High-intensity Focused Ultrasound Treatment of Locally Advanced Pancreatic Cancer: Phase II Study for Pain Palliation and Local Tumor Control

Patients with unresectable pancreatic cancer in most of cases cannot benefit from percutaneous ablation modalities, due to high risk of procedure-related complications. Ultrasound-guided high intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) ablation has been introduced as a feasible treatment option in these patients. However, in other anatomical regions US-guided HIFU has been replaced by the more accurate MR-guided focused ultrasound (MRgFUS) ablation, but the applicability of this latter technique to the treatment of pancreatic cancer is still unexplored. The aim of this study is to explore feasibility and clinical performance of MRgFUS ablation of unresectable pancreatic cancer. Two are the main end-points: Pain palliation and local tumor control.

As compared to conventional US-guided HIFU, MRgFUS could represent a more accurate, non-invasive ablation modality even for unresectable pancreatic cancer although, to date, no cases of pancreatic MRgFUS ablation have been reported.