الفهرس 
ANATOMY OF THE LUNGSOnly 14 pages are availabe for public view
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Abstract
Minimally invasive percutaneous ablation techniques have been well recognized as important tools in the treatment of focal pulmonary neoplasms and are becoming an increasingly attractive choice for the treatment of unresectable tumors in the lung, both as a primary treatment strategy and as an adjuvant to external radiation.
The goal of such a minimally invasive local therapy is to provide a consistent zone of tumor necrosis without the additional complications that are inherent with a surgical procedure that requires general anesthesia, chest tube drainage, and hospitalization.
Radiofrequency (RF) ablation has been the most utilized technique worldwide for lung neoplasms. It is a safe and relatively straightforward minimally invasive procedure for the treatment of lung cancers. RF therapy can potentially be used as an adjuvant therapy to systemic anticancer treatment, including chemotherapy or chemotherapy and radiation therapy, to decrease the tumor cell volume with reasonably low morbidity and mortality. Furthermore, it could be a powerful alternative to surgical treatment or chemotherapy, particularly in selected patients who have combined medical illnesses or limited functional lung reserve.
However, there are significant deficiencies in the delivery of RF electrically based energy that have reduced enthusiasm for this technique, as its energy delivery is limited by the intrinsically high impedance of the lung tissue due to high air content, and is limited even more by charred or desiccated tissue.
These limitations of RF were the reason for improving ablation performance by using the microwave energy for ablation which does not require electrical current conduction but creates electromagnetic heating in a volume around the applicator. Therefore, active microwave heating is not hampered by aerated, charred, or desiccated tissue. It also provides faster heating and larger ablation areas which help decreasing the time required per treatment session.