Medical University of Warsaw
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The first Thermal Ablation of a Lung Tumor in Poland

The first Thermal Ablation of a Lung Tumor in Poland
On 17 January 17, a team of surgeons from the II Department of Clinical Radiology and II Clinic of Anaesthesiology and Intensive Therapy of Medical University of Warsaw’s UCK hospital clinic on  Banacha street performed the first thermal ablation of a lung tumor in Poland. The patient was a 50-year-old male being treated at the Hematology, Oncology and Internal Diseases Clinic and the General, Gastroenterological and Oncological Surgery Clinic.  The pulmonary and liver metastases from colorectal cancer were destroyed during this single surgery.

Thermal ablation refers to the destruction of tissue by extreme hyperthermia. The temperature change is concentrated to a focal zone in and around the tumor. The overall objective of thermal tumor ablation is quite similar to that of surgery: remove the tumor and a 5–10-mm thick margin of seemingly normal tissue. Surgical removal consists of physical excision; during thermal ablation, the tissue is killed in situ and then absorbed by the body over the course of several months (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4226271/). Thermal ablation has been used widely in most EU countries, USA and Canada for many years now in treating lung cancer and metastasis of other cancers.

The first thermal ablation procedure performed by surgeons of Medical University of Warsaw used the percutaneous noninvasive approach. There were no complications during the procedure and the patient was discharged from hospital a few days later.

 

 

 
lung tumor



thermal ablation

 



Photo: Grzegorz Rosiak