Subharmonic-Aided Pressure Estimation (SHAPE) of Pancreatic Adenocarcinomas Undergoing Chemotherapy with Sonoporation – Preliminary Results

Sonoporation is a novel method that can enhance the therapeutic efficacy of co-administered chemotherapy by performing localized contrast-enhanced ultrasound (CEUS) imaging at the time of optimal chemotherapy concentration in the blood. TAn ongoing Phase II clinical trial aims to improve standard of care (SoC) chemotherapy treatment of pancreatic adenocarcinoma (PDAC) by adding sonoporation. As part of this study, a non-invasive ultrasound technique, subharmonic-aided pressure estimation (SHAPE), was used to estimate intra-tumoral pressure measurements. The mean dB values showed that for responders there was an decrease in SHAPE intra-tumoral measurements (indicating a pressure increase) from the first to the last cycle, however no statistical difference was observed between the first and last cycle translating in significant statistical difference between the third and the last cycle (p = 0.28). The mean dB values showed that for non-responders there was significant increase in SHAPE intra-tumoral measurements (indicating a pressure decrease) from the first to the last cycle (p = 0.0002). Most importantly, results showed that between responders and non-responders there was significant statistical difference for the first cycle (p = 0.01) and third cycle (p = 0.002). These preliminary results suggest that SHAPE intra-tumoral pressure measurements may be used to indicate chemotherapy response.