Salvage treatment of NSCLC recurrence after first‐line chemotherapy failure: Iodine‐125 seed brachytherapy or microwave ablation?

Background Salvage treatments for recurrent NSCLC after first‐line chemotherapy remain challenging. This study was conducted to evaluate the clinical value of microwave ablation (MWA) and iodine‐125 brachytherapy, including overall survival (OS), disease free survival (DFS), local control, hospital stay, and health economics. Methods The data of 51 and 32 patients who were treated with MWA and brachytherapy was retrospectively analyzed. The number of lesions was limited up to two, with a diameter