Clinical Practice Guidelines for Cryosurgery of Pancreatic Cancer

Pancreatic cancer (PC), one of the most lethal malignancies, accounts for 8% to 10% of digestive system cancers, and the incidence is increasing. Surgery, chemotherapy, and radiotherapy have been the main treatment methods but are not very effective. Cryosurgery was first used in 1984 for treatment of locally advanced PC and has since become a considerable treatment for most cases of unresectable PC. During the past decade, cryosurgery has been applied in some hospitals in China, and the newly developed technique of computed tomography- and/or ultrasound-guided percutaneous cryosurgery has shown better results than chemotherapy in cases of unresectable locally advanced PC, with the 1-year survival rate reported to be more than 50%. To develop standardized criteria for the application of cryosurgery in PC, the International Society of Cryosurgery and Asian Society of Cryosurgery assembled experts from Austria, Japan, and China to discuss treatment methods and arrive at a consensus on the indications, contraindications, and preferred techniques of PC cryosurgery.