Pancreatic adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is projected to be the second cause of cancer death in Western societies within a decade. Management include chemotherapy and/or radiation therapy, while resectable disease is possible only in 15% of cases.
Despite these therapeutic approaches, the survival rate of unresectable pancreatic cancer remains disappointing. Recently, there is a growing interest in the development of alternative therapeutic approaches, which can work in parallel with standard chemoradiation therapy. These methods include intra-lesion injection/instillation of antitumoral agents performed through a laparoscopic approach, or percutaneously or under endoscopic ultrasound (EUS) guidance and tumor volume reduction procedures using ablative techniques.
In this context laser ablation has been reported to be effective in inducing coagulative necrosis of the tumour in absence of major adverse events. However, the available studies on the matter are limited by small sample size, lack of extended follow up and informations about the possibility to ablate the entire tumour mass.
