The short version
- A pivotal trial has started testing whether adding a focused ultrasound device to standard chemotherapy helps people with pancreatic cancer live longer.
- The device does not heat or destroy the tumor; it makes tiny bubbles meant to open cells so more of the drugs get in.
- The only earlier results come from a pilot of about 30 patients, and the main survival answer is years away.
A randomized trial of focused ultrasound for pancreatic cancer started on November 4, according to its ClinicalTrials.gov record, and is recruiting at the University of Virginia. The device, IMD10 from the Korean company IMGT, does not burn tissue. It focuses ultrasound into the tumor to make tiny bubbles that collapse and open cell membranes, so that more chemotherapy can get in, as the Korean outlet MoneyToday describes it. Pancreatic tumors are wrapped in dense scar-like tissue that keeps drugs out.
The trial, SonoPAN III, plans to enroll 366 people whose cancer is borderline resectable or locally advanced. All get the standard FOLFIRINOX chemotherapy; half also get about 30 minutes of ultrasound alongside it. The main measure is overall survival, followed until 24 months after the last person joins, and MoneyToday reports a final analysis at month 40. Brigham and Women’s, UT Health San Antonio and two Seoul hospitals are listed as sites not yet recruiting. The FDA gave the device Breakthrough Device designation in 2025.
The case for it rests on a randomized pilot of about 30 patients presented in 2024. IMGT’s reported figures include a tumor response rate of 64.3% with the ultrasound against 38.5% without, but the pilot’s numbers vary between reports and its full results are not published. This trial is the one that will answer the question.
