Heat treatment kills lung cancer

Reported by Susan Aldridge, PhD, medical journalist

Radiofrequency ablation treatment kills lung tumors without surgery, according to a new study.
In radiofrequency ablation, a probe is inserted into a tumor and heat is delivered through it to kill malignant tissue. It has a far lower rate of side effects than other treatments and does not require a surgical incision.

A team at the University of Pisa, Italy, reports upon a study of radiofrequency ablation in a group of 106 patients with either primary lung tumors or lung tumors secondary to another cancer. After treatment, the cancers were killed in 93 per cent of cases and cancer-specific one and two year survival rates were 91 per cent for those with a primary tumor. For those with a secondary tumor, survival rates were somewhat lower, as might be expected. The radiofrequency ablation approach looks as if it can offer a new option in lung cancer - for the patients studied here had tumors that could not be operated on.

Source
Society of Interventional Radiology meeting 2nd April 2005