ArticleJournal of thoracic disease2026
Effectiveness and safety of cryoablation therapy for early-stage lung cancer patients: a systematic review and meta-analysis.
Article in Journal of thoracic disease, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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6 authors.
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Abstract
Background: The effectiveness and safety of cryoablation therapy in early-stage lung cancer remains unclear now. Therefore, this meta-analysis aimed to further identify the effectiveness and safety of cryoablation therapy among early-stage lung cancer patients. Methods: PubMed, Chinese National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI) and Web of Science (WOS) databases were searched up to January 10, 2026. Endpoints assessing the effectiveness included the overall survival (OS), cancer-specific survival (CSS), progression-free survival (PFS), local recurrence and metastasis rate. And endpoints evaluating the safety of cryoablation therapy included the risk of hemorrhage, pneumothorax, pneumothorax with chest tube required and 30-day mortality. Additionally, subgroup analysis focusing on patients with stage IA was performed. Results: Seven single-arm pilot studies were included with 353 patients. Most patients were stage IA, with a small proportion of stage IB and two studies reporting a few stage II cases (N0). For effectiveness, pooled results indicated that the 1-, 2-, 3- and 5-year OS was 99% [95% confidence interval (CI): 93-100%], 94% (95% CI: 81-100%), 90% (95% CI: 77-99%) and 67.85%. The overall, 1-, 2- and 3-year PFS was 89.4%, 93% (95% CI: 88-98%), 83% (95% CI: 78-88%) and 68% (95% CI: 54-81%) and 5-year CSS was 56.6%. The local recurrence and metastasis rates were 7% (95% CI: 2-14%) and 4% (95% CI: 0-14%). Regarding safety, the proportions of hemorrhage, pneumothorax, pneumothorax with chest tube required and 30-day mortality were 5% (95% CI: 0-15%), 25% (95% CI: 14-36%), 11% (95% CI: 3-22%) and 0%, respectively. Subgroup analysis for patients with stage IA manifested better effectiveness and safety. Conclusions: For patients with early-stage lung cancer, cryoablation appears to be a feasible minimally invasive treatment option with acceptable short- to mid-term outcomes, particularly in patients with stage IA disease.
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