Comparison between microwave ablation and lobectomy for stage I non-small cell lung cancer: a propensity score analysis.

PURPOSE

To compare the effectiveness and complication between microwave ablation and lobectomy for stage I non-small cell lung cancer.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

This retrospective study was approved by two institutional ethics committees and all patients were provided with informed consent. From January 2000 to December 2010, 54 and 795 stage I patients who underwent microwave ablation and lobectomy were included in this study. A matched cohort composed of 54 and 108 patients in the microwave ablation and the lobectomy group were selected after adjustment with 1:2 propensity score matching. The overall survival and disease-free survival were evaluated. Survival curves were constructed with the Kaplan-Meier method and compared by using the log-rank test.

RESULTS

The 1, 3 and 5-year Overall survive were 100, 92.6 and 50.0% for MWA group and 100, 90.7 and 46.3% for lobectomy group. The 1, 3 and 5-year disease free survival was 98.1, 79.6 and 37.0% for MWA group and 98.1, 81.5 and 29.6% for lobectomy group. There was no significant difference between two groups in overall survival (p = 0.608) and disease free survival (p = 0.672). Additionally, local or distant metastasis rate (p = 0.544) were not significantly different between two groups while the complication rate in the MWA group was significantly lower than the lobectomy group (p = 0.008).

CONCLUSION

Microwave ablation has similar therapeutic effect compared with lobectomy for stage I non-small cell lung cancer, but with fewer complication and less pain.