CT guided percutaneous radiofrequency ablation in treatment of patients with inoperable lung cancer

Abstract

Surgical resection remains the cornerstone of therapy for early stage lung cancer. Five-year survival rates are reported as high as 92% for stage Ⅰ non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). However, many patients presenting with resectable early stage disease are unable to tolerate pulmonary resection, even sublobular resection, because of compromised cardiopulmonary functions or other comorbidities. Traditionally,patients deemed medically inoperable have been treated by external-beam radiation. But the results were poor with a mean survival of 20 months and a 5-years survival rate of 12%. In this scenario, we need to develop other non-surgical local therapies. One of these was image-guided percutaneous radiofrequency ablation(RFA).Many clinical trials show that RFA for lung tumors is a minimally invasive, feasible and safe technique with minor mortality and morbidity. Moreover, its efficacy seems to be promising, even in the long-term follow-up.Further experiences and comparison with other emerging minimally invasive local treatments are required to determine its rote in the treatment of medically inoperable early stage NSCLC. Key words: Lung neoplasms; Catheter ablation; Minimally invasive procedure