Abstract
Background/Aim: Carbohydrate antigen 19-9 (CA19-9) is a tumor marker for pancreatic cancer. Irreversible electroporation (IRE) is an experimental treatment modality for pancreatic cancer. The aim of this study was to evaluate whether percutaneous IRE lowers the CA19-9 level in pancreatic cancer and whether this correlates with improved overall survival. Patients and Methods: Seventy-one patients with locally advanced pancreatic cancer or local recurrence after resection were treated. Patients with missing data, metastatic disease and normal serum CA19-9 before IRE were excluded. This left 35 cases for analysis. Results: The median CA19-9 did not decrease in the cohort after IRE treatment (282 U/ml before versus 315 U/ml after; p=0.80). The 25th percentile of patients with the best CA19-9 response had improved overall survival compared to the 25th percentile with the worst response (mean 13.1 versus 8.1 months, respectively; p=0.01). Conclusion: IRE did not lower the level of CA19-9 in pancreatic cancer cases. However, a response in CA19-9 was correlated with improved survival.
Footnotes
Authors' Contributions
CM: Study design, data collection, statistics, preparation of article, final approval of article. AN: Study design, data collection, preparation of article, final approval of article. JU: Study design, statistics, preparation of article, final approval of article. BMK: Study design, data collection, preparation of article, final approval of article
This article is freely accessible online.
Conflicts of Interest
Anders Nilsson has received travel funding for lectures from Angiodynamics, the company that produces the IRE machine.
- Received September 16, 2019.
- Revision received September 29, 2019.
- Accepted October 1, 2019.
- Copyright© 2019, International Institute of Anticancer Research (Dr. George J. Delinasios), All rights reserved