Radical treatment of stage Ⅳ pancreatic cancer by the combination of cryosurgery and iodine-125 seed implantation

AIM：To investigate the therapeutic effect of radical treatment and palliative treatment in stage Ⅳ pancreatic cancer patients.METHODS：81 patients were enrolled in the study.Radical treatment was performed on 51 patients,while 30 patients were put under palliative treatment.The procedural safety and interval survival for stage Ⅳ pancreatic cancer（IS-Ⅳ） was assessed by almost 2.5 years of follow-ups.The IS-Ⅳ of patients under the two kinds of treatment,and the effects of treatment timing and frequency on IS-Ⅳ,were compared.RESULTS：The IS-Ⅳ of patients who received radical treatment was significantly longer than those who received palliative treatment（P 0.001）.The IS-Ⅳ of patients who received delayed radical or palliative treatment was longer than those who received accordingly timely treatment（P = 0.0034 and 0.0415,respectively）.Multiple treatments can play an important role in improving the IS-Ⅳ of patients who received radical treatment（P = 0.0389）,but not for those who received palliative treatment（P = 0.99）.CONCLUSION：The effect of radical treatment was significantly more obvious than that of palliative treatment,and multiple radical treatments may contribute more to patients than a single radical treatment.