Local ablative therapies and the effect on antitumor immune responses in pancreatic cancer - A review

Suna Erdem; Jayanth Shankara Narayanan; Mathias Worni; Martin Bolli; Rebekah R White

doi:10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e23551

Local ablative therapies and the effect on antitumor immune responses in pancreatic cancer - A review

Heliyon. 2023 Dec 12;10(1):e23551. doi: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e23551. eCollection 2024 Jan 15.

Authors

Suna Erdem^{1

2}, Jayanth Shankara Narayanan¹, Mathias Worni^{3

4

2

5

6}, Martin Bolli², Rebekah R White¹

Affiliations

¹ Moores Cancer Center, University of California San Diego, CA, USA.
² Clarunis, Department of Visceral Surgery, University Centre for Gastrointestinal and Liver Diseases, St. Clara Hospital and University Hospital Basel, Basel, Switzerland.
³ Department of Surgery, Hirslanden Clinic Beau Site, Bern, Switzerland.
⁴ Department of Surgery, Duke University Switzerland.
⁵ Medical Center, Duke University, Durham, NC, USA.
⁶ Swiss Institute for Translational and Entrepreneurial Medicine, Stiftung Lindenhof, Campus SLB, Bern, Switzerland.

Abstract

Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is a devastating disease, projected to rank as the second most prevalent cause of cancer-related mortality by 2030. Despite significant progress in advances in surgical techniques and chemotherapy protocols, the overall survival (OS) remains to be less than 10 % for all stages combined. In recent years, local ablative techniques have been introduced and utilized as additional therapeutic approaches for locally advanced pancreatic cancer (LAPC), with promising results with respect to local tumor control and OS. In addition to successful cytoreduction, there is emerging evidence that local ablation induces antitumor immune activity that could prevent or even treat distant metastatic tumors. The enhancement of antitumor immune responses could potentially make ablative therapy a therapeutic option for the treatment of metastatic PDAC. In this review, we summarize current ablative techniques used in the management of LAPC and their impact on systemic immune responses.

Keywords: Immune modulation; Locally advanced pancreatic cancer; Pancreatic cancer; local ablative techniques.

Publication types

Review