Clinical effects of high intensity focused ultrasound therapy in combination with gemcitabine for unresectable pancreatic carcinoma

Abstract

Objective To investigate the therapeutic effect and safety of high intensity focused ultrasound(HIFU) combined with Gemcitabine in treating unresectable pancreatic carcinoma Methods Forty one patients suffering from unresectable pancreatic carcinoma were randomly divided into two groups.The patients in experimental group(n =21) were provided with HIFU in combination with gemcitabine therapy and those in control group(n =20)received HIFU treatment alone.The effect,clinical benefit rates,changes of tumor marker carbohydrate antigen 19-9(CA19-9)and adverse reactions were compared between these two groups.The median survival time,6-month and 12-month survival rates were calculated by Kaplan-Meier method and Logrank test.Results The median survival time,6-month and 12-month survival rates were 10.22 months,76.2％(16/21) and 42.9％(9/21) in experimental group,and they were 7.43 months,50.0％(10/20) and 15.0％(3/20) respectively in control group.Among them,12-month survival rates was significantly higher in experimental group than that in control group(x2 =4.00,P ＜ 0.05).The clinical benefit rates in experimental group were significantly higher than that in control group[76.2％(16/21) vs 45.0％(9/20),x2 =4.20,P ＜0.05].But there was no significant difference on pain remission rate between the two groups(66.6％ vs45.0％,P ＞ 0.05).There was significant difference on CA19-9 after treated for 2,3,4,5 and 6 months in experimental group than that in control group(t =2.225,2.133,1.743,2.599,2.278,respectively,P ＜ 0.05)Conclusion HIFU in combination with Gemcitabine therapy is better than application of HIFU treatment alone.The former may become of the most effective treatmenffor unresectable pancreatic carcinoma. Key words: Pancreatic carcinoma; High intensity focused ultrasound; Gemcitabine