What is the key question?

• Safety and feasibility of using a novel endobronchial thermal vapor ablation system to treat peripheral lung malignancies.

What is the bottom line?

• Six patients with primary lung malignancies, who were to undergo resection (within 5 days), were enrolled in this prospective study.
• The peripheral lesions (median size 1.32cm) were identified with radial endobronchial ultrasound plus virtual navigation, and then a novel system was used to ablate the lesion in 1 or 2 sessions.
• Post-resection histology was assessed for parenchymal necrosis and residual tumor. A single patient was deemed not suitable for resection post-ablation for anesthetic concerns. Ablation was able to be performed in all cases proving feasibility.
• The technique was found to be safe with only mild complications (pain from local pleuritic reactions and local airway thermal injury). Occurrence of more significant complications were related to surgical resection.
• Some cases contained histologically viable tumor post-ablation, showing more work is required to refine this technique.

Why read on?

• The authors discuss the ablative treatment of each case in depth including histological findings.