Ultrasound guided high intensity focused ultrasound for advanced pancreatic cancer: A comparative study between Chinese and Bulgarian patients

Objective: This study is to determine the efficacy of the Chinese clinical program of Ultrasound Guided High-Intensity Focused Ultrasound (USgHIFU) in the Bulgarian patients with advanced pancreatic adenocarcinoma. Methods: Patients with advanced pancreatic adenocarcinoma from China and Bulgaria were enrolled in the study. All patients received the same clinical procedure of USgHIFU treatment and follow-up. The patient characteristics, the USgHIFU treatment and evaluation parameters including complications, Visual Analogue Scale (VAS) pain scores, tumor size, serum CA19-9 levels, survival rates and survival times were comparatively studied in Chinese and Bulgarian patients. Results: There was no significant difference in clinical parameters of Chinese and Bulgarian patients with advanced pancreatic adenocarcinoma, such as the ratio of male/female, mean age, tumor size, and TNM stage. Similarly, no statistical significance was found in USgHIFU procedure including treatment time, the ratio of USgHIFU time to treatment time, USgHIFU time, average power and total energy. After USgHIFU treatment, four patients with complications were recorded. The VAS pain scores post- USgHIFU were decreased. Besides, the tumor shrunk after treatment, and the one-year survival rate for the Chinese and Bulgarian patients were 26.0% and 37.0%, respectively. The results showed no statistical significance between patients from China and Bulgaria. Additionally, the serum CA19-9 content did not show significant change in Chinese and Bulgarian patients after USgHIFU treatment. Conclusion: A good consistency in treatment efficacy of USgHIFU was found in Chinese and Bulgarian patients with advanced pancreatic adenocarcinoma, suggesting that the Asian-originated USgHIFU treatment for advanced pancreatic adenocarcinoma may be also suitable for European patients.