University of Roma La Sapienza – Locally Advanced Pancreatic Cancer

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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HIFU has been replaced by the more accurate MR-guided focused ultrasound (MRgFUS) ablation,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.