Radiofrequency ablation of pulmonary metastases from sarcoma: single-center retrospective evaluation of 46 patients

Purpose: This retrospective, single-center study evaluated radiofrequency (RF) ablation for pulmonary metastases of sarcoma. Materials and methods: Forty-six patients with sarcoma (144 pulmonary metastases) underwent 88 RF ablation sessions. Data regarding local tumor progression, efficacy, procedural adverse events (AEs; National Cancer Institute Common Terminology Criteria for Adverse Events, version 4.0), overall survival (OS), and OS-associated prognostic factors were retrospectively evaluated using univariate analyses. Results: Local progression occurred in 22 of 144 tumors (15.3%). Primary and secondary efficacy rates were 83.5 and 90.0% at 1 year and 76.3 and 81.4% at 2 years, respectively. Seventy-three grade 1 AEs, 33 grade 2 AEs, and no grade ≥ 3 AEs were observed. Twenty-eight patients (60.9%) remained alive and 18 died, yielding 1-, 2-, and 3-year OS rates of 80.6, 70.1, and 47.1% (median survival time, 31.7 months). Univariate analysis revealed extrapulmonary metastasis (P = 0.005), noncurative RF ablation (P = 0.009), and a post-RF ablation disease-free interval of ≤12 months (P = 0.015) as significant negative prognostic factors. Conclusion: RF ablation is safe, offers good local control, and may be a viable treatment option for pulmonary metastasis of sarcoma.