Advances in study of the sequence of lung tumor biopsy and thermal ablation

Percutaneous thermal ablation is an important treatment for lung cancer and is widely used in hospitals. Puncture biopsy is generally required for pathological diagnosis before or after thermal ablation. Pathological diagnosis provides both evidence of benign and malignant lesions for ablation therapy and is of important significance for the next step in disease management. Furthermore, the sequence of ablation and biopsy affects the accuracy of pathological diagnosis, the complete ablation rate of thermal ablation, and incidence of surgery-related complications. Ultimately, it may affect the patient's benefit from local treatment. This article reviews the research progress of traditional asynchronous biopsy followed by ablation, the emerging methods of synchronous biopsy followed by ablation, and synchronous ablation followed by biopsy in the last decade. KEY POINTS: The sequence of ablation and biopsy affects the accuracy of pathological diagnosis, the complete ablation rate of thermal ablation, and the incidence of surgical-related complications. This article reviewed the recent 10 years' literature on the surgical sequence of biopsy and ablation for lung tumors, the advantages, disadvantages and indications of different orders were analyzed.