Radiofrequency Ablation of Pulmonary Tumors Response Evaluation

Image-guided RF ablation is accepted as a viable therapeutic choice for patients with early-stage hepatocellular carcinoma or limited hepatic metastatic disease from colorectal cancer, when surgery is precluded (1, 2). Recently, RF ablation has been proposed as a viable option for the treatment of pulmonary malignancies. Experimental studies in animal tumor models have confirmed the effectiveness of RF ablation in the destruction of experimentally-induced pulmonary malignancies (3). Pilot clinical investigations have suggested that the treatment can achieve high proportions of tumor response (4, 5). We designed a prospective, intention-to-treat, multicenter clinical trial aimed at assessing feasibility, safety and effectiveness of RF ablation in the treatment of lung malignancies.