Imaging response evaluation after local ablative treatments in locally advanced pancreatic cancer: an expedited systematic review

Several local ablative modalities have been introduced for the treatment of locally advanced pancreatic cancer (LAPC). However, there is no consensus on how to evaluate the imaging response after treatment. A systematic review was performed regarding the use of imaging for response assessment in LAPC. A systematic literature search was conducted in PubMed. Studies reporting imaging outcomes were included in the review. Studies were excluded if the imaging outcomes could not be differentiated between different disease stages, tumor histology or surgical approaches. Thirty-four studies were included in the analysis. Fourteen studies used standardized response criteria, while six studies did not report the response evaluation method. The rest used self-determined criteria, absolute size comparisons or similar methods. One study found a correlation between early systemic progression (