Purpose: To describe experience with bronchial artery embolization (BAE) in a cohort of patients with cancer.
Materials and methods: All consecutive patients with cancer and at least one episode of hemoptysis that required BAE during a 14-year period were included in this observational retrospective review. The endpoints of the study were immediate success, recurrence of hemoptysis, mortality resulting from hemoptysis, and all-cause mortality.
Results: Immediate control of bleeding was achieved in 31 of 40 patients (77.5%). Recurrence requiring BAE occurred in eight patients (20%). Cumulative hemoptysis control rate was 0.90 (95% confidence interval [CI], 0.80-1.0) at 1 month and 0.65 (95% CI, 0.44-0.86) at 6 months. Probability of survival was 0.75 (95% CI, 0.62-0.88) at 1 month, 0.42 (95% CI, 0.27-0.57) at 6 months, 0.36 (95% CI, 0.21-0.51) at 12 months, and 0.08 (95% CI, 0.0-0.18) at 3 years.
Conclusions: BAE is an effective and safe technique in the treatment of hemoptysis in patients with cancer. Nevertheless, mortality resulting from hemoptysis and recurrence rate are high among these patients secondary to progression of the underlying disease.
Keywords: BAE; CI; PVA; bronchial artery embolization; confidence interval; polyvinyl alcohol.
© 2014 The Society of Interventional Radiology Published by SIR All rights reserved.