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Observational Study
. 2019 Jan-Dec:18:1534735419878505.
doi: 10.1177/1534735419878505.

Modulated Electro-Hyperthermia as Palliative Treatment for Pancreatic Cancer: A Retrospective Observational Study on 106 Patients

Giammaria Fiorentini  1 , Donatella Sarti  1 , Virginia Casadei  1 , Carlo Milandri  2 , Patrizia Dentico  2 , Andrea Mambrini  3 , Roberto Nani  4 , Caterina Fiorentini  5 , Stefano Guadagni  6
Affiliations
Observational Study

Modulated Electro-Hyperthermia as Palliative Treatment for Pancreatic Cancer: A Retrospective Observational Study on 106 Patients

Giammaria Fiorentini et al. Integr Cancer Ther. 2019 Jan-Dec.

Abstract

Background: Pancreatic adenocarcinoma has a poor prognosis, resulting in a <10% survival rate at 5 years. Modulated electro-hyperthermia (mEHT) has been increasingly used for pancreatic cancer palliative care and therapy. Objective: To monitor the efficacy and safety of mEHT for the treatment of advanced pancreatic cancer. Methods: We collected data retrospectively on 106 patients affected by stage III-IV pancreatic adenocarcinoma. They were divided into 2 groups: patients who did not receive mEHT (no-mEHT) and patients who were treated with mEHT. We performed mEHT applying a power of 60 to 150 W for 40 to 90 minutes. The mEHT treatment was associated with chemotherapy and/or radiotherapy for 33 (84.6%) patients, whereas 6 (15.4%) patients received mEHT alone. The patients of the no-mEHT group received chemotherapy and/or radiotherapy in 55.2% of cases. Results: Median age of the sample was 65.3 years (range = 31-80 years). After 3 months of therapy, the mEHT group had partial response in 22/34 patients (64.7%), stable disease in 10/34 patients (29.4%), and progressive disease in 2/34 patients (8.3%). The no-mEHT group had partial response in 3/36 patients (8.3%), stable disease in 10/36 patients (27.8%), and progressive disease in 23/36 patients (34.3%). The median overall survival of the mEHT group was 18.0 months (range = 1.5-68.0 months) and 10.9 months (range = 0.4-55.4 months) for the non-mEHT group. Conclusions: mEHT may improve tumor response and survival of pancreatic cancer patients.

Keywords: FOLFIRINOX; gemcitabine; modulated electro-hyperthermia; pancreatic cancer; survival; tumor response.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of Conflicting Interests: The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Tumor response at 3 months.PR, partial response; SD, stable disease; PD, progressive disease; mEHT, modulated electro-hyperthermia.
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
OS (overall survival) of the 2 groups of the study. The solid line is the survival of modulated electro-hyperthermia (mEHT) group and the dashed line the non-mEHT. The “x” indicates the censored patients.
Figure 3.
Figure 3.
OS (overall survival) grouped by metastatic patients of the 2 groups of the study. The solid line is the survival of modulated electro-hyperthermia (mEHT) group and the dashed line the non-mEHT. The “x” indicates the censored patients.
Figure 4.
Figure 4.
OS (overall survival) grouped by the first-line treatments of the 2 groups of the study. The solid line is the survival of modulated electro-hyperthermia (mEHT) group and the dashed line the non-mEHT. The “x” indicates the censored patients.
Figure 5.
Figure 5.
OS (overall survival) grouped for non-resected patients of the 2 groups of the study. The solid line is the survival of modulated electro-hyperthermia (mEHT) treated, the dashed line the non-mEHT treated survival curve, and the “x” indicates the censored patients.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

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