ObjectiveTo investigate the effectiveness and safety of nanoknife ablation guided by real-time virtual sonography (RVS) in the treatment of locally advanced pancreatic cancer (LAPC). MethodsA retrospective analysis was performed for the clinical data of 27 patients with LAPC who attended The Fifth Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University from April 2018 to October 2019, and according to the treatment method, the patients were divided into combination group (12 patients treated with IRE combined with chemotherapy) and control group (15 patients treated with chemotherapy alone). The chemotherapy regimen was gemcitabine combined with tegafur, gimeracil and oteracil potassium for both groups. Adverse reactions and complications were observed for the combination group during the perioperative period, and the two groups were compared in terms of the changes in myocardial enzymes, blood amylase, and carbohydrate antigen 19-9 (CA19-9) before treatment and at different time points after treatment, as well as remission rate (RR) and disease control rate (DCR) at 3 months after treatment and survival status during follow-up. The Mann-Whitney U test was used for comparison of non-normally distributed continuous data between groups, and the Wilcoxon test was used for comparison within each group; the Fisher’s exact test was used for comparison of categorical data between groups; the Kaplan-Meier method was used to analyze the survival status during follow-up. ResultsIn the combination group, there were 12 cases of adverse reactions and mild complications during the perioperative period, i.e., 9 Clavien-Dindo grade I cases and 3 grade II cases. All patients in the combination group experienced a transient increase in myocardial enzymes, which returned to normal within 7 days, and there were no significant changes in creatine kinase and lactate dehydrogenase on day 7 after treatment (P＞0.05); 9 patients had a significant increase in blood amylase on day 1 after surgery, which significantly decreased on day 7 after surgery and basically returned to normal on day 14 after surgery, and there was no significant change in blood amylase on days 7、14， and 1 month after surgery (P＞0.05). Before treatment, the level of CA19-9 was higher than the normal value in both groups, and the combination group had a significant reduction in CA19-9 at 1, 2, and 3 months after treatment (all P＜005); in the control group, the level of CA19-9 firstly decreased for a short time and then increased, while there was no significant change in CA19-9 at 1, 2, and 3 months after treatment (all P＞0.05). At 3 months after treatment, the combination group had significantly higher RR and DCR than the control group (RR: 75.0% vs 26.7%, P=0.021; DCR: 91.6% vs 53.3%, P=0043). During the median follow-up time of 13 months, compared with the control group, the combination group had significantly higher median progression-free survival time (10 months vs 5 months, P=0.014) and median overall survival time (18 months vs 10 months, P=0.034). ConclusionRVS-guided percutaneous nanoknife ablation has marked clinical effect and high safety in the treatment of LAPC and can be used as a new treatment option for patients who refuse or cannot tolerate laparotomy for ablation therapy.

Objective:To study the complications of irreversible electroporation (nano-knife) ablation on locally advanced pancreatic cancer, and to analyse the causes of complications and related treatment.Methods:The clinical data of 36 patients with locally advanced pancreatic cancer treated with nano-knife ablation at the Fifth Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University from January 2016 to March 2019 were studied retrospectively. The types and incidence of postoperative complications were analyzed. The complications were classified according to the Clavien-Dindo classification, and the severity of the complications was evaluated.Results:There were 15 patients (41.7%) who developed various degrees of complications, including splenic infarction, atrial fibrillation, portal vein thrombosis, pancreatic fistula, pseudoaneurysm, gastrointestinal bleeding, liver abscess and severe pancreatitis. Among them, 6 patients (16.7%) had grade III complication or above. Three (8.3%) patients with grade Ⅲ complications died of upper gastrointestinal bleeding 3 months after operation.Conclusions:Various complications might occur after nano-knife ablation, with postoperative gastrointestinal and abdominal bleeding being the main complications which resulted in death. Measures which can effectively reduce occurrence of complications need to be studied.