Thermal ablation for the treatment of primary and secondary pulmonary malignancies

In the review article entitled “The Role of Percutaneous Image-Guided Thermal Ablation for the Treatment of Pulmonary Malignancies” (1) recently published in the American Journal of Roentgenology (AJR) by Mouli and colleagues, the authors reviewed thermal ablation techniques [radiofrequency ablation (RFA), microwave ablation (MWA), and cryoablation] for the treatment of pulmonary malignancies [non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and metastasis] with respect to treatment mechanism, local efficacy, imaging modalities used for guidance, treatment response evaluation, and clinical outcomes. The authors also reviewed the comparative studies of thermal ablations with surgery and stereotactic beam radiotherapy (SBRT).