Computed tomography-guided cryoablation of local recurrence after primary resection of pancreatic adenocarcinoma

The optimal management of local recurrences after primary resection of pancreatic
cancer still remains to be clarified. A 58-year-old woman developed an isolated
recurrence of pancreatic cancer six year after distal pancreatectomy.
Re-resection was attempted but the lesion was deemed unresectable at surgery.
Then chemotherapy was administrated without obtaining a reduction of the tumor
size nor an improvement of the patient's symptoms. Thus the patient underwent
percutaneous cryoablation under computed tomography (CT)-guidance obtaining tumor
necrosis and a significant improvement in the quality of life. A CT scan one
month later showed a stable lesion with no contrast enhancement. While the use of
percutaneous cryoblation has widened its applications in patients with
unresectable pancreatic cancer, it has never been described for the treatment of
local pancreatic cancer recurrence after primary resection. Percutaneous
cryoablation deserves further studies in the multimodality treatment of local
recurrence after primary pancreatic surgery.