Lung RFA's midterm results beat expectations

More than 90% of patients undergoing radiofrequency ablation for primary and secondary lung cancer could outlive their treatment for two years or longer, provided they don't succumb to other causes. Researchers from Italy reported these findings at the Society of Interventional Radiology meeting in April.

Dr. Riccardo Lencioni and colleagues at the University of Pisa treated 186 nonoperable tumors in 106 patients enrolled in the multicenter Radiofrequency Ablation of Pulmonary Tumors Response Evaluation (RAPTURE) trial. The study included 33 patients with non-small cell lung cancer, 53 with colorectal cancer metastases, and 20 with metastases from other types of malignancy.

RFA yielded high local tumor control rates and cancer-specific survival outcomes for patients with NSCLC or CRC metastases. CT follow-up three months after the procedure confirmed ablation's effectiveness rate at 93%. Cancer-specific survival rates for NSCLC and CRC metastases were 91% and 88% at one year and 91% and 72% at two years, respectively.