Ablation in Pancreatic Cancer: Past, Present and Future

SIMPLE SUMMARY: Despite advancements in surgical oncology and chemoradiation therapies, pancreatic cancer still has one of the lowest 5-year survival rates in the United States. The silent progression of this disease often leads to it being identified after it has already reached an advanced and often unresectable stage. The field of interventional oncology has yielded ablation strategies with the potential to downstage and increase survival rates in patients suffering from locally advanced pancreatic cancer. This review examines the treatment strategies for locally advanced pancreatic cancer, discussing current results and future directions. ABSTRACT: The insidious onset and aggressive nature of pancreatic cancer contributes to the poor treatment response and high mortality of this devastating disease. While surgery, chemotherapy and radiation have contributed to improvements in overall survival, roughly 90% of those afflicted by this disease will die within 5 years of diagnosis. The developed ablative locoregional treatment modalities have demonstrated promise in terms of overall survival and quality of life. In this review, we discuss some of the recent studies demonstrating the safety and efficacy of ablative treatments in patients with locally advanced pancreatic cancer.