"University of Louisville announced today results from the Soft Tissue Ablation Registry STAR demonstrating that irreversible electroporation IRE with the NanoKnife System in combination with chemotherapy doubled the overall survival rate of locally advanced Stage III pancreatic cancer patients to nearly  months. The data was presented at the American Surgical Association annual meeting in San Diego. Locally advanced pancreatic cancer is Stage III cancer that has not yet spread. Pancreatic cancer has one of the highest mortality rates of all cancers and is expected to climb from the fourth leading cause of cancerrelated death in the U.S. to the second by . Ninety four percent of pancreatic cancer patients will die within five years of diagnosis and  of patients die within the first year of diagnosis. The STAR data adds to the growing body of evidence that IRE ablation may represent a new treatment paradigm for patients with locally advanced pancreatic cancer said Robert Martin M.D. Ph.D. F.A.C.S. director of the Division of Surgical Oncology and Professor Department of Surgery University of Louisville James Graham Brown Cancer Center. This new analysis of IRE could help change the standard of care for Stage III pancreatic cancer patients whose only treatment options until now were chemotherapy or a combination of chemoradiation therapy which will only stabilize the disease and not destroy the tumor.  With IRE these patients now have a surgical treatment option to augment their treatment plan. The NanoKnife IRE system is a tool that destroys cancerous cells by subjecting them to a series of short electrical pulses using highvoltage direct current that does not injure surrounding cells blood vessels and other vital structures. IRE overcomes rapid growth of the tumor by killing all malignant cells at once so they cannot continue to grow and spread. The NanoKnife IRE system is approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for the surgical ablation of soft tissue. It is not approved for use in specific cancers. About STAR  STAR was a retrospective analysis of IRE performed on  consecutive patients diagnosed with locally advanced Stage III pancreatic cancer LAPC at six centers in the U.S. The centers that collaborated on the study included University of Louisville Louisville KY Henry Ford Hospital Detroit MI Cleveland Clinic Cleveland OH Piedmont Hospital Atlanta GA Swedish Medical Center Denver CO and Cancer Treatment Centers of America Atlanta GA.     From July  to October  patients with radiographic Stage III LAPC were treated with IRE and monitored under a multicenter prospective IRBapproved registry.  Perioperative day outcomes local failure and overall survival were recorded and compared to standard of care data for Stage III LAPC. All patients underwent induction chemotherapy with  percent receiving chemoradiation for a median of  months range  prior to IRE. IRE was successfully administered to all patients. Nineteen percent sustained complications with a median grade of  range . Median length of stay was  days range  with a median followup of  months. Six patients  had local recurrence. Median overall survival in both groups was . months.        About the University of Louisville Physicians Group and The James Graham Brown Cancer Center The James Graham Brown Cancer Center is a key component of the University of Louisville Health Sciences Center. As part of the regions leading academic research and teaching health center the cancer center provides the latest medical advances to patients often long before they become available in nonteaching settings. The JGBCC is a part of KentuckyOne Health and is affiliated with the Kentucky Cancer Program. It is the only cancer center in the region to use a unified approach to cancer care with multidisciplinary teams of physicians working together to guide patients through diagnosis treatment and recovery. For more information visit our web site http or call  . Related Links http"