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Original Articles

The safety and efficacy of microwave ablation for the treatment of CRC pulmonary metastases

, , , , , , , , & show all
Pages 486-491 | Received 11 Oct 2015, Accepted 08 Aug 2017, Published online: 16 Nov 2017
 

Abstract

Purpose: Microwave ablation (MWA) is a recently developed thermal ablation technique that has been used for the treatment of different types of tumours. In the present study, we retrospectively evaluated the safety and efficacy of CT-guided percutaneous MWA for the treatment of colorectal cancer (CRC) pulmonary metastases.

Materials and methods: From June 2010 to June 2015, 48 unresectable lesions in 32 patients with CRC pulmonary metastases were subjected to CT-guided MWA. Imaging follow-up was with contrast-enhanced CT and 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) positron emission tomography (PET)/CT.

Results: Oncologic imaging showed that 42 (87.5%) of the 48 lesions in the 32 patients were completely ablated. Needle track metastatic seeding was not found, and no patient deaths occurred within 30 d after ablation. The mean hospital stay was 3 d (range, 2–7 d). Pneumothorax was the most frequent complication and occurred in 6 (12.5%) of the 48 lesions. The median survival time was 31 months (95% CI: 15.4–46.6). The 1-, 2- and 3-year survival rates were 79.5%, 63.1% and 44.4%, respectively. Univariate Cox regression analysis showed that tumour size, disease-free interval (DFI) and number of tumours were significantly related to the overall survival time (p = .007, p = .022 and p = .030, respectively). Multivariate analysis showed that tumour size was an independent prognostic factor for survival (p = .017).

Conclusion: CT-guided percutaneous MWA is a safe and effective minimally invasive method for treating CRC pulmonary metastases.

Disclosure statement

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Additional information

Funding

National Natural Science Foundation of China10.13039/501100001809This research project was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) [30972703, 81171653 and 81201741].

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