Aims and objectives
Lung cancer is the most common neoplasm in the US,
with a frequency of 225.000 new cases and a mortality rate of 160.000 cases each year.
Nowadays,
surgery exportation is the treatment of choice for low staged (I & II) lung tumours.
Unfortunately many patients could not be selected for surgery because of multiple comorbidities such as cardiovascular and pulmonary disorders that raise the operatory risk of mortality and morbidity,
especially in elder patients.
For this reason new treatments are needed in those patients with...
Methods and materials
This study was approved by our ethical committee and complied with Helsinki declaration.
From April 2010 to July 2013,
27 consecutive patients (17 M; 10 F) with 30 recently diagnosed and not treated pulmonary lesions (mean diameter 27,6±16 mm; range: 8-66 mm) were enrolled in our single-centre pilot study,
on the basis of a clinical multidisciplinary exclusion from surgery,
following criteria reported in Table 1.
Upon local subcutaneous anaesthesia,
a CT-guided percutaneous RFA was performed on the target lesion,
using a single 3-cm monopolar needle...
Results
No major complications occurred.
Minor complications included perilesional hemorrhage (73,3%) and pneumothorax (60,0%; requiring a chest tube drainage in 16,7% of cases,
removed in each patient 3 days after the procedure at the latest).
Overall technical success was achieved in all patients,
with a mean diameter of the lesion after procedure of 32,5 ± 13,4 mm; range: 12-73 mm.
During a mean follow-up of 13 months,
a complete and partial response was obtained in 66,7% and 23,3% of lesions respectively and a stable disease was...
Conclusion
RFA seems to be a safe and an effective treatment in patients with unresectable or medically inoperable primary lung tumours.
Our study showed good results in terms of tumour response and patient’s survival at mid-term follow-up.
References
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