[Ethanol injection therapy to the lung cancer].

Ethanol injection was tried in patients who underwent exploratory thoracotomy. There were 4 males and 1 female, adenocarcinoma in 3 cases, large cell carcinoma in 1 case, and metastatic lung cancer in 1 case. We grasped the lung included the tumor, and injected ethanol directly into the tumor. Maximum dose of injected ethanol was within 10 ml. There were no any complications postoperatively in all patients. Postoperative course was followed by means of chest CT. Three patients whose preoperative cancer stage was early stage gained good results in local control, two patients whose preoperative cancer stage was stage III B in one patient and metastatic cancer rapidly growing in other patient had no effects. Ethanol injection into the lung tumor was easy to perform and safety, and has direct effect in local control of the tumor in especially small sized.