Evaluation of Safety and Efficacy of Radiofrequency Lesioning of Thoracic Dorsal Root Ganglion in Chest Cancer Pain Patients

Background: since cancer-associated pain is a common occurrence in malignancies involving the chest. In these cases, pain is complex and may have visceral, somatic or neuropathic components. It has been noticed that the number of cancer patients with refractory chest pain is increasing with more cancer prevalence, also with the advances in therapy and prolonged life expectancy. The demand for interventional procedures to control pain for these patients also increases. Interventional pain procedures are indicated for refractory pain when analgesic drugs are ineffective or associated with intolerable side effects. In controlling cancer pain it is commonly inadequately managed for these patients leading to suffer form of physical disabilities, psychological disturbance and avoiding treatment. Aim of the work: this study was designed to test both the efficacy and safety of thermo-coagulative ablation of the thoracic dorsal root ganglia for pain control in cancer patients that have refractory chest pain. Methodology: this prospective randomized study was conducted in the National Cancer Institute, Cairo University and Aswan University after board approval from October 2016 to March 2018. Sixty-five patients with Refractory Chronic Chest Cancer Pain were selected randomly and prospectively from the pain clinic of both the National Cancer Institute of Cairo University and Aswan University, after taken an informed written consent from the patient. The complete duration of the follow up lasted 3 months post-interventional with assessments after 1 week, 1 month and 3 months. At each follow up each patient was re-assessed with the following assessments; VAS, ECOG Performance Status. Results: we found that with effective pain relief there was a significant reduction in the mean VAS values; which means that there was functional improvement, in all the postinterventional follow ups. Also, there was an improvement in the functional state of the patients throughout the follow-up post-intervention with regards to the ECOG performance status from the results.Conclusion: we concluded that thermal radiofrequency ablation is considered an alternative for treating refractory chronic chest cancer pain of several types and causes. This is because of its efficacy, safety and ease of use. It also requires a minimal hospital stay or can even be performed on an outpatient basis.