Objective To explore the immune effects of high intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) in the treatment of pancreatic carcinoma and to investigate the imaging methods to evaluate HIFU's efficacy.Methods A total of 32 patients with pancreatic carcinoma treated by HIFU were enrolled.The freeze-thaw antigen was prepared by freezing and thawing the cancer cells.HIFU antigen was prepared by cancer cells sonicated by HIFU.The killing effects of no antigen activated dendritic cells (DC) induced T lymphocyte (DC-T),freeze-thaw antigen activated DC induced T lymphocyte (freeze-thaw antigen-DC-T) and HIFU activated DC induced T lymphocyte (HIFUantigen-DC-T) in autologous pancreatic cancer cells were detected by lactic dehydrogenase kit.The changes of immune indexes [heat shock protein 70 (HSP70),T helper lymphocyte Thl/Th2 and transforming growth factor-β (TGF-β)] before and after H IFU treatment were determined by enzymelinked immunosorbnent assay (ELISA) method.The changes of clinical efficacy indexes [visual analogue scale (VAS),performance status (PS) and carbohydrate antigen (CA) 19-9] before and after HIFU treatment were compared.The instant and recent (two months) efficacy of HIFU treatment were evaluated by contrast enhanced ultrasonograph (CEUS) and computed tomography (CT).The line q test was performed for comparision between groups.t-test was applied for comparision before and after treatment.Results Compared with freeze-thaw antigen,the killing effect of HIFU antigen-DC-T in autologous pancreatic cancer cells was higher (40.24％ ± 10.56％ vs 46.93％±13.26％,q=3.44,P＜0.05).HSP70 [(17.31±4.75) ng/mlvs (22.84±5.56) ng/ml],Th1/Th2 (1.24±0.36 vs 1.47±0.31),TGF-β [(1.39±0.41) ng/ml vs (1.04±0.38) ng/ml],VAS (3.97±1.32 vs 3.26±1.18),PS (2.76± 1.02 vs 2.21±0.86) and CA19-9 level[(135.39±37.45) U/ml vs (114.82±30.51) U/ml] improved after HIFU treatment compared with those before treatment (t=4.278,2.739,3.542,2.268,2.332 and 2.409,allP＜0.05).CEUS and CT showed that blood supply and the volume of the tumors reduced after HIFU treatment.Conclusions HIFU is effective in treating pancreatic carcinoma,improving immune status of patients and enhancing antitumor response.CEUS can real-time evaluate the efficacy of HIFU treatment.

Objective To elucidate the immunologic mechanism and clinical effect of high intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) combined with dendritic cell and cytokine induced killer cell (DC-CIK) immunotherapy on patients with pancreatic cancer.Methods Seventy-two pancreatic cancer patients were divided randomly into 2 equal groups,one treated with HIFU only the other treated with HIFU and DC-CIK immunotherapy.Ultrasound imaging and a variety of immunological indexes were recorded before and after treatment and the clinical effects in the two groups were compared.Moreover,autogenous tumor cells were isolated from the combination therapy group and the killing activity of DC-CIK which loaded tumor antigen processed by HIFU on autogenous tumor cells was observed.Results Tumor antigen processed by HIFU can improve the killing activity of DC-CIK on autogenous tumor cells.After treatment,the immunological indexes,of all patients were better than before treatment.(58.26 ± 17.97 versus 52.15 ± 14.22 pg/ml with IL-12 22.14 ± 6.39 versus 17.36 ± 5.73 ng/ml with HSP70 and 0.94 ± O.34 versus 1.32 ± O.61 ng/ml with TGF-β,P ＜ 0.05 ) ; The combination group was significantly better than the HIFU group with regard to the average scores of quality of life (75.89 ± 19.65 versus 67.22 ± 16.34,P＜0.05),pain (3.15 ±0.82 versus 3.59 ± 1.04,P ＜0.05),tumor markers (107.55 ±27.58 versus 123.63 ±34.12 U/ml) and survival time (18.92±6.47 versus 13.36 ±5.78 mos).Conclusion HIFU can improve the immunologic status and anti-tumor response in patients with pancreatic cancer.HIFU combined with DC-CIK has good synergistic therapeutic effect for treating pancreatic cancer.