Internal radiation therapy for pancreatic cancer

An innovative technique of internal radiotherapy to make operable an otherwise inoperable pancreatic tumor. At the San Camillo Forlanini Hospital, the first implantation in Italy of OncoSil, a device with microparticles labeled with Phosphorus-32, was successfully performed with the aim of reducing the volume of a locally advanced inoperable pancreatic tumor. This is communicated by a note.
"An important step that places San Camillo Forlanini in the foreground at European level in the field of research and technological innovation for the treatment of pancreatic cancer" reads.
Performed on May 11 endoscopically, on a 65-year-old patient, the intervention uses a brachytherapy procedure, a radiotherapy technique in which a radiation source is placed directly inside the patient's body, and was carried out as part of the European study 'Osprey', which in Italy also involves the Policlinico Gemelli, the Institute of the Pancreatic of Verona and the Cancer Institute of Milan. The intervention is the result of a year of work by a multidisciplinary team that involved the units of Nuclear Medicine, Gastroenterology, Oncology, Transplant Surgery and General Surgery and Health Physics of San Camillo-Forlanini.
"Research, innovation and the courage of professionals can make a qualitative leap in care, even and especially when it comes to complex or very complex diseases, such as oncological ones, in this case one of the most aggressive cancers we know. There is really a need for experimentation, the possibility of building new ways to attack the tumor itself. The contribution of each of the professionals involved was fundamental to achieve this goal", says Narciso Mostarda, general manager of the San Camillo-Forlanini hospital. Pancreatic cancer is the fourth by incidence and is the only one that has not shown a reduction in mortality rates in both men and women over time.
In Italy in 2020, about 14,300 new diagnoses and 12400 victims were estimated. In most cases it has asymptomatic evolution and presents itself at the diagnosis at an already advanced stage: for this reason, every step of research and technological innovation is therefore fundamental for the contrast and treatment of this tumor.