Posted by Medivizor on Apr 21, 2013 in Colorectal cancer |
In a nutshell
This study looked at the use of radiofrequency ablation (RFA) as a treatment for colorectal cancer which has spread to the lungs (pulmonary metastasis). Overall, the results showed that RFA treatment gives patients a better survival rate than the previous method of systemic chemotherapy which used to be the best treatment option for pulmonary metastases.
Some background
Colorectal cancer spreads to the lungs in 10% of patients, and is the second most common site of metastasis after the liver. Patients with pulmonary metastasis have until recent years only been treated with systemic chemotherapy as they have been deemed unsuitable for surgery if there is more than one tumor present. Chemotherapy, despite advances in modern day medicine, is not adequate enough to provide long term disease control or a cure. Newer techniques such as RFA have been developed more recently. RFA treatment involves guiding a probe to the site of the tumor and heating the probe with radiofrequency to destroy tumor cells ("ablation").
Methods & findings
In this study, patients treated with RFA were either treated as a salvage procedure, or as a sequential procedure to liver resection. This means that patients already had cancer removed from the liver more than 6 months before RFA treatment (salvage), or were undergoing or had a tumour removed from the liver in the 6 months up to receiving RFA treatment (sequential). The salvage treatment group included 45 patients and the sequential treatment group included 19 patients.
Results of this study showed that patients treated in the salvage group had a longer disease free survival time (16 months) and longer overall survival time (59 months) compared to the sequential treatment group. The disease free survival time in sequential treatment group was 9 months and the overall survival time was 31 months. Although results were better for the salvage treatment group, both groups had better survival rates than treatment with chemotherapy alone.
The bottom line
Overall this study shows that RFA is an effective treatment for controlling pulmonary metastases in patients who previously had tumors removed from the liver.
The fine print
This was a small study and the higher survival rates in salvage patients may be due to a larger patient population in this treatment group.
Published By :
Annals of Surgical Oncology
Original Title :
Radiofrequency Ablation of Concomitant and Recurrent Pulmonary Metastases after Surgery for Colorectal Liver Metastases
Tags:
Current disease status-First occurrence of the cancer,
Current disease status-Recurrent cancer-Metastatic recurrence,
Library Item,
Performance status-0 - Asymptomatic,
Performance status-3 - Symptomatic, 50 in bed,
Research,
Site(s) of metastases-Lungs,
Treatment,
Treatment(s) already received-Surgery,
Type(s) of colorectal cancer (CRC)-Adenocarcinoma of the appendix
