[Treatment of malignant liver tumors with radio-frequency ablation (RFA)]

A lot of different methods exist for the treatment of liver primary and secondary tumours. Nowadays surgery is the method of choice. If operation is not possible and other conditions are available, local tumour ablation is applicable. One of these methods is the radio-frequency (RF) thermal ablation.

This method is effective on the base of literature, albeit the indications are not uniform. Authors by the own experience wanted to get dates to define the indication and to study the effectivity of this method in the therapy of liver tumour.

Between the 1 January 2000 and 31 January 2002, 86 tumors of 40 patients were treated with RF thermal tumour ablation. This method was applied first in Hungary by our workgroup. RF ablation was performed with generator Cosman CC-1, Radionics, Burlington and cooled-tip single or cluster electrodes.

Complete response was achieved in 56 percent. Results of primary tumour necrosis was better when the diameter of the tumour was 3.5-4 cm or less or the treatment was achieved by cluster electrode. 20 patients became tumour free (5 have breast cancer). Tumour spread came into existence in the spite of therapy in ten patients, 8 patients died. The average observation time was one year. In conclusion, the results of this study show that RF ablation with a cooled-tip electrode needle is a safe and effective technique for local treatment of hepatic lesions 4 cm or less in diameter and if the number of lesion less than 4-5.

Authors suggest to use widely the RF technique with other methods in the treatment of hepatic tumours.