Laser ablation of metastatic lesions of the lung: long-term outcome.
OBJECTIVE
Pulmonary metastatic lesions are present in 20-54% of all patients who die of cancer. Surgical studies have shown that local management of distant tumor metastasis as part of multimodal cancer therapy improves survival. Minimally invasive procedures such as thermal ablation are still to prove their clinical relevance. The aim of this study was to monitor therapeutic outcome and long-term results after percutaneous laser-induced thermal ablation.


METHODS
Sixty-four patients with metastasis to the lung underwent laser-induced thermal ablation in an ongoing prospective study. A total of 129 percutaneous procedures were performed to manage a total of 108 lung lesions. The median tumor size was 2.0 cm (range, 0.4-8.5 cm). Adequate management of all known individual tumor correlates was critical for definitive patient therapy. The Kaplan-Meier method was used to calculate survival and recurrence rates.


RESULTS
Definitive management of initial pulmonary disease was achieved in 31 of 64 patients. The 1-, 2-, 3-, 4-, and 5-year survival rates after ablative therapy were 81%, 59%, 44%, 44%, and 27%. The median progression-free interval was 7.4 months. There were no therapy-related deaths. Pneumothorax occurred in 38% of the patients, necessitating periprocedural drainage in 5% of all cases. Parenchymal bleeding (13% of cases) always was self-limited.


CONCLUSIONS
Laser ablative therapy for pulmonary metastasis is a promising option in multimodal cancer therapy. The procedure is safe and effective. The initial clinical outcome data strongly suggest that this technique has the potential to improve survival among selected patients.
Rosenberg
Christian
C
Institute of Diagnostic Radiology and Neuroradiology, Ernst Moritz Arndt University, Ferdinand-Sauerbruch-Strasse, 17485 Greifswald, Germany. christian.rosenberg@uni-greifswald.de
Puls
Ralf
R
Hegenscheid
Katrin
K
Kuehn
Jens
J
Bollman
Tom
T
Westerholt
Alexandra
A
Weigel
Christiane
C
Hosten
Norbert
N
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D003287:Contrast Media; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D053685:Laser Therapy / Q000379:methods*; D008175:Lung Neoplasms / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000556:secondary* / Q000601:surgery*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009364:Neoplasm Recurrence, Local; D011446:Prospective Studies; D015996:Survival Rate; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed; D016896:Treatment Outcome
D003287:Contrast Media