Cooking Tumors: Cutting Edge Lung Cancer Treatment

Physicians at Rhode Island Hospital have announced a new therapy that doubles the median survival rate for lung cancer patients. Damian Dupuy, MD, director of tumor ablation and ultrasound in the department of diagnostic imaging, and Thomas DiPetrillo, MD, clinical director of radiation oncology, offer a combined therapy to patients: thermal ablation is used to cook the tumor and radiation therapy eradicates any remaining tumor cells in the surrounding area.

How it works
The inside of a tumor holds very little oxygen, while the outside of a tumor contains high levels of oxygen. Radiation requires oxygen to destroy cells, making it very effective for the outer tumor. Thermal ablation uses the conduction of heat around the tip of the electrode inserted into the tumor to cook the tumor at a near boiling point. These treatments can be performed in either order because both create better environments for the other; radiation helps enhance conduction and thermal ablation decreases the overall number of cancer and other cells with lower levels of oxygen.

The combined method of radiation and ablation is best for early stage lung cancer. For later stages of lung cancer, the combined treatment can also be used, along with chemotherapy if the patient can tolerate it. The majority of patients with later stages of lung cancer have health complications or other health factors that make them poor candidates for the combination therapy.

The effectiveness of the combination treatment was demonstrated in a study that followed patients for seven years after treatment. The results, published in the Journal of Vascular and Interventional Radiology, also showed that the combined therapy has been successful in decreasing the number of recurrences.

Dupuy says that the combination approach may be useful for treating tumors in other parts of the body. “There are a lot of opportunities for exploring the synergy of thermal ablation and radiation.”

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