Microwave ablation combined with chemotherapy improved progression free survival of IV stage lung adenocarcinoma patients compared with chemotherapy alone

BACKGROUND: Microwave ablation (MWA) has recently become an established treatment option for topical therapy of lung cancer patients. In this study, we evaluated whether MWA combined with chemotherapy could improve progression‐free survival (PFS) of patients with stage IV lung adenocarcinoma compared with chemotherapy alone. METHODS: A total of 49 patients were enrolled into the study; 21 patients accepted MWA therapy combined with chemotherapy, 28 patients accepted only chemotherapy. Enumeration data were analyzed using χ2 test or Fisher's exact probability test and univariate analysis was analyzed using Kaplan–Meier survival curves. Multivariate analysis was carried out with the Cox proportional hazard model. RESULTS: The treatment regimen was not correlated with clinical features of the patients, which included gender, age, smoking history, tumor site, tumor size and Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group (ECOG). The patients’ 3‐year overall survival (OS) was 12.5%, and median survival time was 19.3 months. The median PFS was 6.1 months and the 1‐year PFS was 0.0%. The PFS was significantly associated with tumor size (P < 0.05), ECOG (P < 0.01) and treatment regimen (P < 0.01). The median time to local progression (TTLP) was 8.4 months and the 3‐year TTLP was 2.0%. The TTLP was significantly associated with tumor size (P < 0.05) and treatment regimen (P < 0.01). Cox multivariate regression demonstrated that MWA combined with chemotherapy was the independent factor for both the PFS and TTLP. CONCLUSION: MWA, as a topical treatment method, when combined with chemotherapy improved the PFS and TTLP of patients with stage IV lung adenocarcinoma.