Percutaneous CT-guided radiofrequency ablation as supplemental therapy after systemic chemotherapy for selected...

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the safety and efficacy of percutaneous CT-guided radiofrequency ablation (RFA) as a supplemental therapy after systemic chemotherapy for selected patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).

We retrospectively reviewed the medical records of 220 patients with advanced NSCLC who were treated with platinum-doublet chemotherapy between January 2000 and January 2012. Among them, 49 patients underwent RFA as a supplemental therapy for tumors in partial response or stable diseases after first-line chemotherapy. The progression-free survival (PFS) was evaluated by Kaplan-Meier method.

There were nine women and 40 men (median age, 60 years; range, 24-82 years), including 28 patients with stage IIIb cancer and 21 with stage IV cancer. All 49 patients (partial response, 23 patients; stable disease, 26 patients) underwent 67 RFA sessions for 61 targeted tumors after systemic chemotherapy. There were no procedure-related deaths. Pneumothorax requiring chest tubes developed in eight sessions (11.9%). Thirty-one patients (63.3%) had complete response, 12 patients (24.5%) had partial response, six patients (12.2%) had stable disease, and no patients had progressive disease. The median follow-up period was 19 months (range, 6-34), and the median PFS was 16 weeks (95% CI, 14.5-17.5).

Percutaneous CT-guided RFA can be performed as a feasible minimally invasive supplemental therapy with satisfactory PFS after systemic chemotherapy for patients with advanced NSCLC.