Background: The lung is the most common site for primary cancer worldwide as well as being a common site of metastases for various malignancies. Percutaneous radiofrequency ablation (RFA) is rapidly evolving as a new minimally invasive tool for the treatment of pulmonary tumors.
Patients and methods: A questionnaire was sent by e-mail to 14 centres around the world, which we knew or thought were performing percutaneous pulmonary RFA, to retrospectively survey their experience in this field including the number of ablations done to date, indications, method, peri- and postprocedural complications.
Results: Seven centers reported 493 percutaneous procedures in lung tumors. Two deaths have been reported. Complications were subdivided into major and minor complications. Pneumothorax occurred in up to 30% of interventions with less than 10% requiring intercostal drainage. Pleural effusion requiring aspiration occurred in less than 10% of cases.
Conclusion: With almost 500 procedures done to date, percutaneous pulmonary RFA appears to be a safe, minimally invasive tool for local pulmonary tumor control with negligible mortality, little morbidity, short hospital stay and gain in quality of life.