Chinese doctors shrink lung tumour in unborn baby using microwave procedure

Chinese doctors have successfully shrunk a potentially life-threatening lung tumour in an unborn baby using a minimally invasive microwave procedure performed while the baby was still in the womb.

The procedure was carried out by doctors from Shenzhen Baoan Women’s and Children’s Hospital and the Chinese University of Hong Kong.

The case was published on August 20 in the peer-reviewed journal Ultrasound in Obstetrics & Gynecology.

The baby had congenital pulmonary airway malformation (CPAM), a rare condition in which abnormal lung tissue develops during pregnancy. Severe cases can grow rapidly and put pressure on the baby’s heart and lungs.

Doctors detected the problem when the mother was 22 weeks pregnant. The growth had reached about 5 cm and occupied much of the baby’s right chest, severely compressing the heart and lungs. The baby had also developed ascites, a potentially dangerous accumulation of fluid in the abdomen.

Conventional treatment options were considered unsuitable because the growth consisted of numerous tiny cysts and lacked a central blood vessel that could be targeted. Doctors therefore opted for microwave ablation, which uses heat to destroy abnormal tissue.

Using real-time ultrasound imaging, doctors guided a thin ablation needle through the mother’s abdomen and uterus into the tumour. Microwave energy was then delivered through the needle, heating and destroying the abnormal tissue. The heating lasted about two minutes, while doctors monitored nearby organs throughout the procedure.

Three days later, scans showed that the tumour had shrunk significantly and the abdominal fluid had disappeared.

The baby was delivered by Caesarean section at 37 weeks, weighing about 2.9 kg. The newborn had an Apgar score of 10 and was reported to be in good health. At four months, the baby remained symptom-free and had not required further surgery.

Doctors described the case as a milestone in foetal medicine but cautioned that one case cannot establish the procedure’s safety or effectiveness. Further research will be needed before microwave ablation can be considered a standard treatment for severe CPAM.