On January 13, 2022 EDAP TMS SA (Nasdaq: EDAP) ("the Company"), the global leader in robotic energy-based therapies, reported the publication of positive pre-clinical results using intraoperative high intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) ablation of the pancreas in the peer-reviewed journal Cancers (Press release, EDAP TMS, JAN 13, 2022, View Source [SID1234605466]).
Schedule your 30 min Free 1stOncology Demo!
Discover why more than 1,500 members use 1stOncology™ to excel in:
Early/Late Stage Pipeline Development - Target Scouting - Clinical Biomarkers - Indication Selection & Expansion - BD&L Contacts - Conference Reports - Combinatorial Drug Settings - Companion Diagnostics - Drug Repositioning - First-in-class Analysis - Competitive Analysis - Deals & Licensing
Schedule Your 30 min Free Demo!
The paper, entitled, Intraoperative HIFU Ablation of the Pancreas Using a Toroidal Transducer in a Porcine Model. The First Step towards a Clinical Treatment of Locally Advanced Pancreatic Cancer, describes a pre-clinical study designed to assess the feasibility of using HIFU under Doppler guidance to treat the pancreatic parenchyma and tissues surrounding the superior mesenteric vessels in vivo, in an animal model.
Pancreatic adenocarcinoma is among the most aggressive of all cancers. Regardless of treatment, the overall 5-year survival rate for patients with locally advanced pancreatic adenocarcinoma ("LAPA") is less than 5%. A HIFU approach could help in the treatment of such pathology that is inaccessible by other known therapeutic methods. Apart from palliative chemotherapy, no other curative options have been proven effective for the treatment of LAPA.
During the study, HIFU treatments were performed using an intraoperative HIFU probe which caused irreversible tissue necrosis in only a few seconds by producing sufficiently strong heat in the focal area. This study is the first step toward the launch of a Phase I study to evaluate the safety and feasibility of such a HIFU approach in patients with LAPA and to further confirm these encouraging results.
"The possibility of treating the pancreas using HIFU holds great promise for the treatment of locally advanced pancreatic cancers. If clinically successful, chemotherapy followed by HIFU treatment could rapidly become a novel treatment option of LAPA," concluded the paper’s authors.
Marc Oczachowski, EDAP’s Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, said: "We are very excited with these pre-clinical results and the promise they demonstrate for HIFU as a viable treatment for pancreatic cancer and other severe pathologies with low overall survival rates and no effective treatment options. We are proud of the ongoing work of the EDAP research team, who, together with Inserm and Centre Leon Bérard, are advancing the development of HIFU to offer patients a potentially effective treatment alternative for these difficult to treat cancers."
The full text of the paper can be found here.