Pulmonary artery coil embolisation prevented tumour progression in a patient with advanced squamous cell lung carcinoma

Abstract

Background: Squamous cell lung carcinoma (SqCLC) is a type of non-small-cell lung cancer, accounting for 25–30% of all lung cancer cases with a median advanced stage survival of 8–11 months. Here we present a rare case of long-term survival with metastatic SqCLC following coil embolisation of the right pulmonary artery.

Case presentation: The 49-year-old patient was diagnosed with stage IV (cT4N3M1) SqCLC in 2007 due to a biopsy-proven central malignant tumour in the right lung and bilateral mediastinal lymphadenopathy. A magnetic resonance imaging scan also revealed a metastatic lesion in the liver. Soon after the diagnosis, the patient experienced pulmonary haemorrhage, which was managed by obturating the intermediate bronchus and performing coil embolisation of the right pulmonary artery. The patient also received chemotherapy in 2007 and 2009 without radiological changes. At three different time points in years 2010–2019, biopsies of the primary tumour were taken. All showed dense connective tissue with no indication of cancer growth. In 2020, a positron emission tomography scan showed no pathological metabolic activity in the lungs and liver. Currently, the patient remains in a stable clinical condition with a good performance status.

Conclusion: The long-term clinical benefit indicates a direct effect of coil embolisation on tumour progression. We suggest that coil embolisation of tumour-feeding arteries could be considered as a potential treatment method for patients with SqCLC.

Keywords:

• Alternative therapy
• coil embolisation
• non-small cell lung cancer
• spontaneous regression
• squamous cell carcinoma

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Virginija Šileikienė

Virginija Šileikienė, PhD, is an assistant professor in pulmonology at the Faculty of Medicine, Vilnius University, and a consulting pulmonologist at the Centre of Pulmonology and Allergology, Vilnius University Hospital Santaros Klinikos, Vilnius, Lithuania.

Viktorija Gurskytė

Viktorija Gurskytė is a medical student at the Faculty of Medicine, Vilnius University, and a laboratory assistant at the Department of Anatomy, Histology and Anthropology, Faculty of Medicine, Vilnius University, Vilnius, Lithuania.

Ingrida Zeleckienė

Ingrida Zeleckienė is a doctor radiologist at the Centre of Radiology and Nuclear Medicine, Vilnius University Hospital Santaros Klinikos, Vilnius, Lithuania. The doctor specializes in cardiovascular and thoracic radiology. She is a member of the Lithuanian Association of Radiology (LRA), the European Society of Radiology (ESR).

Elena Bernotienė

Elena Bernotienė is a pulmonologist specialising in lung cancer at the Centre of Pulmonology and Allergology, Vilnius University Hospital Santaros Klinikos, and the supervisor of resident doctors in pulmonology at the Faculty of Medicine, Vilnius University, Vilnius, Lithuania.

Sigitas Čibiras

Sigitas Čibiras, PhD, is an interventional cardiologist at the Centre of Cardiology and Angiology, Vilnius University Hospital Santaros Klinikos, Vilnius, Lithuania.