Friday, June 24, 2005
Cryosurgery for unresectable endobronchial tumors
This month's Chest has a retrospective study of cryosurgery for
unresectable endobronchial lung cancer showing it improves cough,
dyspnea, hemoptysis, and Karnofsky scores. This was a "before-after"
analysis with no controls. Interestingly, there was a slight
mortality benefit for those who received more than one 'surgery,'
raising the possibility that this may also be a life-prolonging
palliative intervention. Clearly the exact role of this promising
therapy warrants more study, but this article is encouraging.