RFA Eases Symptoms of Inoperable Lung Cancer

Sebastiano Hospital (Caserta, Italy) analyzed 33 patients with malignant lung cancer who could not undergo surgery and opted for CT-guided RFA instead. No major complications occurred and all sessions were deemed successful at follow-up CT.

The study was prompted by the feeling that an alternative to the usual therapies for lung cancer was strongly needed. "We see too many lung cancer patients who, inoperable for a number of different reasons, are left with few chances to obtain an effective palliation,” noted lead author Guiseppe Belfiore, M.D. "For sure, RFA allows a better quality of life for many inoperable patients.”

In the second study, researchers from National University Hospital (Chonbuk, South Korea) determined that pattern enhancement--a difference in contrast between a tumor and the surrounding tissue--and changes in tumor size were the most important factors in judging the success of RFA for lung tumors on CT. They analyzed 21 patients who had undergone CT-guided RF, nine who had complete ablations and 12 who had partial ablations. For the former group, the researchers found tumors were without any enhancement on short-term follow-up CT and that the size of the lesions had decreased by 40% after 12 months. For the partially ablated group, the tumors were enhanced to various degrees short-term and the tumor size had increased after six months.

The studies were published in the October 2004 issue of the American Journal of Roentgenology.




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Chonbuk National University Hospital