Clinical efficacy of thermal ablation for the treatment of pulmonary carcinoid tumor: a propensity-matched analysis

Abstract

Objective

To investigate the clinical efficacy of thermal ablation in the treatment of pulmonary carcinoid (PC) tumor.

Methods

Data of patients with inoperable PC diagnosed from 2000 to 2019 were obtained from the SEER database and analyzed according to different therapeutic modality: thermal ablation vs non-ablation. Propensity score matching (PSM) was used to reduce intergroup differences. Kaplan–Meier curves and the log-rank test were used to compare intergroup differences of overall survival (OS) and lung cancer-specific survival (LCSS). Cox proportional risk models were used to reveal prognostic factors.

Results

After PSM, the thermal ablation group had better OS (p < .001) and LCSS (p < .001) than the non-ablation group. Subgroup analysis stratified by age, sex, histologic type and lymph node status subgroups showed similar survival profile. In the subgroup analysis stratified by tumor size, the thermal ablation group showed better OS and LCSS than those of the non-ablation group for tumors ≤3.0 cm, not statistically significant for tumors >3.0 cm. Subgroup analysis by M stage showed that thermal ablation was superior to non-ablation in OS and LCSS for patients with M0 stage, but no significant difference was found in subgroups with distant metastatic disease. Multivariate analysis showed that thermal ablation was an independent prognostic factor for OS (HR: 0.34, 95% CI: 0.25–0.46, p < .001) and LCSS (HR: 0.23, 95%CI: 0.12–0.43, p < .001).

Conclusion

For patients with inoperable PC, thermal ablation might be a potential treatment option, especially in M0-stage with tumor size ≤3 cm.

Keywords:

• Thermal ablation
• pulmonary carcinoid
• SEER database
• propensity score matching

Acknowledgments

Not applicable.

Ethical approval

As the data used were from SEER dataset, which is publicly available, ethics approval and consent to participate is not applicable.

Author contributions

H. Yang, L. Luo, and M. Li contributed to the study design. H. Yang, M. Li, and T. Liu preformed the data analysis. H. Yang wrote the manuscript. L. Luo and M. Li critically revised and edited the manuscript. All authors reviewed and approved the final manuscript.

Informed consent

Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

All SEER data and information are publicly available at https://seer.cancer.gov/.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Natural Science Foundation Project of Chongqing (No. cstc2020jcyj-msxmX1093) and Chongqing Science and Health Joint Medical Research Project (No.2023MSXM039).