Purpose: A retrospective evaluation was done of clinical utility of lung radiofrequency (RF) ablation in recurrent non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) after surgical intervention.
Methods: During May 2003 to October 2010, 44 consecutive patients (26 male and 18 female) received curative lung RF ablation for 51 recurrent NSCLC (mean diameter 1.7±0.9 cm, range 0.6 to 4.0) after surgical intervention. Safety, tumor progression rate, overall survival, and recurrence-free survival were evaluated. Prognostic factors were evaluated in multivariate analysis.
Results: A total of 55 lung RF sessions were performed. Pneumothorax requiring pluerosclerosis (n=2) and surgical suture (n=1) were the only grade 3 or 4 adverse events (5.5%, 3 of 55). During mean follow-up of 28.6±20.3 months (range 1 to 98), local tumor progression was found in 5 patients (11.4%, 5 of 44). The 1-, 3-, and 5-year overall survival rates were 97.7, 72.9, and 55.7%, respectively. The 1- and 3-year recurrence-free survival rates were 76.7 and 41.1%, respectively. Tumor size and sex were independent significant prognostic factors in multivariate analysis. The 5-year survival rates were 73.3% in 18 women and 60.5% in 38 patients who had small tumors measuring≤3 cm.
Conclusion: Our results suggest that lung RF ablation is a safe and useful therapeutic option for obtaining long-term survival in treated patients.