Role of radio-ablative technique for optimizing the survival of patients with locally advanced pancreatic adenocarcinoma (Review)

Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is one of the most common and frequently diagnosed malignant tumor of the pancreas with few treatment options and poor life expectancy. Despite the advances in the surgical field, 40% of the patients are diagnosed with locally advanced disease which is not suitable for surgery. Radio-frequency ablation (RFA) has been described as a new 'weapon' in the multimodal treatment of PDAC, representing a cytoreductive procedure which must be completed with radiotherapy or chemo-radiotherapy. A systematic research was carried out utilizing the PubMed database in regards to this subject, to evaluate the role of RFA in PDAC management. Abstracts, letters-to-the-editor and non-English language manuscripts were excluded. The literature showed that RFA can be used in open and laparoscopic surgery but it is also feasible for endoscopic ultrasound (EUS-guided RFA) or percutaneous approach. Even though we found optimistic and encouraging reports on overall survival (OS), randomized studies are still required to corroborate these findings. Our review research underline that surgical resection remains the only radical treatment option, RFA being a safe and feasible technique reserved for unresectable, non-metastatic pancreatic tumors. Its combination with oncological treatment can improve the OS of these patients.