Efficacy and safety of ethanol injection for endobronchial tumor debulking (a feasibility study)

Abstract

Background Airway obstruction by malignant tumors may lead to dyspnea, cough, hemoptysis, atelectasis and pneumonia. Aim The aim was to assess safety and efficacy of ethanol injection in debulking of endobronchial malignant tumors. Patients and methods It included 20 patients with endobronchial malignant tumors and divided into 2 groups randomly: group A; 10 patients subjected to ethanol injection plus chemotherapy and group B; included 10 patients treated with chemotherapy alone. Results There was a significant improvement in dyspnea, cough and hemoptysis scores in group A after the end of the study (P1: 0.004, 0.014 and 0.014 respectively) and a significant improvement in group A compared with group B 2 weeks after the last session of chemotherapy as regard dyspnea and cough (P2 < 0.001 and 0.02 respectively) but with no significant difference between both groups two weeks after the last session of chemotherapy (P2: 0.21) for hemoptysis. In group A, there was a significant improvement in Karnofsky performance scale, FEV1 and FEV1/FVC ratio at the end of the procedure (P1 0.002, 0.024 and 0.03 respectively) with a significant improvement compared with group B (P2: 0.003, 0.04 and 0.05 respectively). Two patients in group A showed improvement in CT chest with no improvement in group B. Evaluation of response with revised RECIST; in group A, one patient showed good response, 5 patients showed partial response but in group B, only 2 patients showed partial response. Conclusion Intratumoral injection of ethanol 95% is effective and safe adjuvant to chemotherapy for tumor debulking.Copyright © 2016 The Egyptian Society of Chest Diseases and Tuberculosis