Percutaneous ablation treatment in metastatic lung tumors: a single-center experience.

Background: In recent years, many studies have proven that percutaneous thermal ablation is an effective second-line treatment method with low complication rates in early-stage non-small cell lung carcinoma and lung metastases. Radiofrequency ablation and microwave ablation are commonly used for this purpose.

Purpose: To evaluate the factors affecting the success of the percutaneous thermal ablation treatment with technical success, complication rates, and long-term follow-up results in metastatic lung lesions.

Material And Methods: Computed tomography (CT)-guided percutaneous ablation was performed for 70 metastatic lung lesions in 35 patients (22 men, 13 women; mean age = 61.34 years; age range = 41-75 years). Radiofrequency ablation was performed in 53/70 (75.7%) lesions and microwave ablation in 17/70 (24.3%) lesions.

Results: The technical success rate was 98.6%. Median overall survival, progression-free survival, and local recurrence-free survival of the patients were 33.9 months (range=25.6-42.1 months), 12 months (range=4.9-19.2 months), and 24.2 months (range=8.2-40.1 months), respectively. One- and two-year overall survival rates were 84% and 74%, respectively. Median progression-free survival times were 20.3 months and 11.4 months, respectively, according to the number of metastatic lung lesions being single and multiple, and the difference was statistically significant ( = 0.046). According to the number of lesions ≤3 and >3, the difference was also found statistically significant ( = 0.024) (14.3 months and 5.7 months, respectively).

Conclusion: In conclusion, CT-guided percutaneous thermal ablation is a safe and effective treatment method in metastatic lung lesions. The number of lesions is the most important factor in predicting treatment success.