The use of catheter-based localised delivery of drugs for treatment of cancer patients has proven to be effective and provides the benefit of reduced systemic toxicity. A critical prerequisite for these modalities is the angiographic identification and engagement of feeder vessels of appropriate size into the tumours in order to deliver the designated therapy. Therefore, hypovascular tumours are not optimally treated with these catheter-based techniques. For instance, pancreatic tumours, unlike their liver counterpart, are generally hypovascular, and are without any obvious arterial feeder vessels. Novel approaches to overcome this obstacle for drug delivery in these tumours has the potential to significantly improve outcome and potentially survival in these patients.
Intra-Arterial Approach to Locally Advanced Pancreatic Cancer
