A Case of Unresectable Pancreatic Cancer with Long-Term Survival in High-Intensity Focused Ultrasound (HIFU) Therapy
A patient in Tokyo with pancreatic cancer survived more than four years while undergoing focused ultrasound in conjunction with standard systemic chemotherapy.
Japanese physicians from the Department of Gastroenterology and Hepatology at Tokyo Medical University employed high-intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) in conjunction with standard systemic chemotherapy to control pain and possibly extend survival in a 63-year-old man with pancreatic cancer. The clinical trial with Yuande Bio-Medical’s ultrasound-guided “FEP-BY 02” HIFU system (Beijing, China) lasted more than three years during which the patient received seven HIFU applications. The patient died 4.5 years after the onset of the disease. Can pain level, tumor size, and tumor biomarkers be used to make treatment decisions regarding when to add focused ultrasound?