Moyer MT et al. – The study aimed to determine the requirement of alcohol in effective pancreatic cyst ablation, the complication rates if alcohol is removed from the ablation process, and the rate of complete cyst resolution with multi–agent chemotherapeutic cocktail compared with previous trials using alcohol followed by paclitaxel alone. The authors concluded that alcohol is not required for effective ablation, and hence, removing alcohol from the ablation process may significantly reduce associated adverse events (AEs). Complete ablation rate was not shown to improve significantly with multi–agent chemotherapeutic ablation admixture compared with the current standard of alcohol lavage followed by paclitaxel alone.

Methods

• Single–center, prospective, double–blind study of 39 patients with mucinous–type pancreatic cysts, who were randomly assigned to cyst lavage with either 80% ethanol (control group) or normal saline (alcohol–free).
• The cysts were then infused with an admixture of paclitaxel and gemcitabine.

Results

• At 12 months, complete ablation was observed in 67% of patients in the alcohol–free group versus 61% in the control group.
• No serious or minor adverse events (AE) occurred in the alcohol–free group, whereas 6% and 22% of patients had serious and minor AEs, respectively, in the control group.
• The overall complete ablation rate was 64%.