Advances in Interventional Oncology

Image-guided lung intervention in the oncologic patient includes transthoracic needle biopsy, thermal ablation, fiducial placement, and tunneled pleural catheter placement and is made possible by technical advancements in computed tomography, fluoroscopy, and ultrasound technology, as well as the proliferation of available thermal ablation modalities such as radiofrequency, microwave, and cryoablation. With increasingly earlier cancer diagnoses being made and a greater patient demand for minimally invasive therapies, interventional oncology has many options to offer the patient with thoracic malignancies. The indications, technique, outcomes, and complications of these diagnostic and therapeutic procedures are described in detail in this review article.