Background: We aimed to assess the clinical outcome of computed tomography (CT)-guided percutaneous microwave ablation (MWA) in patients 75 years of age and older with early stage peripheral nonsmall cell lung cancer (NSCLC).
Materials and methods: Twenty-eight patients, aged ≥ 75 years, with Stage I and lymph node-negative IIa peripheral NSCLC underwent CT-guided percutaneous MWA in our hospital between July 2007 and March 2015. The overall 1-, 2-, 3-, and 4-year survival rates were estimated using Kaplan-Meier analysis. Adverse events were recorded.
Results: The median follow-up time was 22.5 months. The overall median survival time (MST) was 35 months (95% confidence interval [CI] 22.3-47.7 months), and the cancer-specific MST was 41.9 months (95% CI 38.8-49.9 months). The 1-, 2-, 3-, and 4-year overall survival rates were 91.7%, 76.5%, 47.9%, and 47.9%, while the cancer-specific survival rates were 94.7%, 73.9%, 64.7%, and 64.7%, respectively. Median time to local progression was 28.0 months (95% CI 17.7-38.3 months). Major complications were included pneumothorax (21.4%, requiring drainage), pleural effusions (3.6%, requiring drainage), and pulmonary infection (3.6%).
Conclusions: CT-guided percutaneous MWA is safe and effective for the treatment of patients 75 years of age and older with medically inoperable early stage peripheral NSCLC.