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.
Keywords: CA19-9; Pancreatic neoplasms; electroporation; interventional ultrasonography.
Copyright© 2019, International Institute of Anticancer Research (Dr. George J. Delinasios), All rights reserved.