This phase II trial was conducted to evaluate the safety and efficacy of concurrent gemcitabine and high-intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) therapy in patients with locally advanced pancreatic cancer. Patients with localized unresectable pancreatic adenocarcinoma in the head or body of the pancreas received gemcitabine (1000 mg/m) intravenously over 30 min on days 1, 8, and 15, and concurrent HIFU therapy on days 1, 3, and 5. The treatment was given every 28 days. Thirty-seven (94.9%) of the 39 patients were assessable for response, and two cases of complete response and 15 cases of partial response were confirmed, giving an overall response rate of 43.6% [95% confidence interval (CI), 28.0-59.2%]. The median follow-up period was 16.5 months (range: 8.0-28.5 months). The median time to progression and overall survival for all patients were 8.4 months (95% CI, 5.4-11.2 months) and 12.6 months (95% CI, 10.2-15.0 months), respectively. The estimates of overall survival at 12 and 24 months were 50.6% (95% CI, 36.7-64.5%) and 17.1% (95%CI, 5.9-28.3%), respectively. A total of 16.2% of patients experienced grade 3/4 neutropenia. Grade 3 thrombocytopaenia was documented in two (5.4%) patients. Grade 3 nausea/vomiting and diarrhea were observed in three (8.1%), and two (5.4%) patients, respectively. Grade 1 or 2 fever was detected in 70.3% of patients. Twenty-eight patients (71.8%) complained of abdominal pain consistent with tumor-related pain before HIFU therapy. Pain was relieved in 22 patients (78.6%). In conclusion, concurrent gemcitabine and HIFU is a tolerated treatment modality with promising activity in patients with previously untreated locally advanced pancreatic cancer.

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Lung cancer has become the leading cause of cancer deaths, with nonsmall cell lung cancer (NSCLC) accounting for around 80% of lung cancer cases. Chemotherapy is the main conventional therapy for advanced NSCLC. However, the disease control achieved with classical chemotherapy in advanced NSCLC is usually restricted to only a few months. Thus, sustaining the therapeutic effect of first-line chemotherapy is an important problem that requires study. Maintenance therapy is given for patients with advanced NSCLC if three is no tumor progression after four to six cycles of first-line platinum-based chemotherapy. However, selection of appropriate maintenance therapy depends on several factors, while traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) as maintenance therapy is recommended for all kinds of patients. It has been demonstrated that TCM can prolong the survival time, improve the quality of life (QOL), and reduce the side effects for advanced NSCLC. Although the trials we searched about TCM serving as maintenance therapy is only 9 studies, the results indicate TCM can prolong the progression free survival (PFS) and improve the QOL. So it is possible for TCM to be as maintenance therapy for advanced NSCLC. More rigorous trials are required to further verify its efficacy.