[Surgical resection for pancreatic cancer combined with preoperative carbon-ion beam irradiation].

Prognosis of pancreatic cancer is still remarkably poor, even if complete resection was performed by enlarged abscission. On the other hand, carbon-ion beam therapy is giving good results in some selected carcinoma such as small cell lung cancer, prostate cancer, uterus cancer, and soft tissue/bone tumor. In this report, we discuss four patients with pancreatic cancer treated by surgical pancreatectomy combined with preoperative carbon-ion beam irradiation. All patients were irradiated with 48 GyE carbon-iron beam by HIMAC (Heavy Ion Medical Accelerator in Chiba) to the pancreatic area including lymph nodes and nerve plexus. Severe cholangitis, as the postoperative complication, had occurred in one of the patients. However, there was no complication or disorder caused by carbon-iron radiation. All four patients are alive now, but two of them developed tumor recurrence, one with hepatic metastasis and the other with peritoneal dissemination. Surgical treatment for pancreatic cancer combined with preoperative carbon-ion irradiation is expected as a promising cure, but it is necessary to examine more cases in the future to evaluate the clinical outcome of this treatment.