Tumour-seeding: a rare complication of ablative therapy for clinically localised renal cell carcinoma

Current evidence-based clinical practice guidelines identify surgical resection as the recommended treatment of small renal masses. Ablative approaches such as laparoscopic and percutaneous cryoablation and radiofrequency ablation offer the promise of complete tumour destruction by a less-invasive approach with regard to outcomes such as anaesthesia requirements, blood loss, length of stay and time to recovery, making them appealing to patients. However, evidence of therapeutic benefits, harms and costs for these methods remains limited. We report a case of applicator tract seeding by tumour following percutaneous cryoablation of renal cell carcinoma; a rare and potentially under-reported, yet catastrophic complication of ablative therapy.