An exploratory study of CT-guided percutaneous radiofrequency ablation for stage I thymoma
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Updated: Jan 2, 2026
Thermal Ablation for the Treatment of Abdominal Tumors
Published on: March 7, 2011
Jun Dong1, Shaofei Yuan2, Boyang Chang3
1Department of Integrated Therapy in Oncology, State Key Laboratory of Oncology in South China, Collaborative Innovation Center for Cancer Medicine, Sun Yat-sen University Cancer Center, Guangzhou, 510060, People's Republic of China.
Background:
Thymoma is a rare tumor that originates from thymic epithelial cells and is usually associated with myasthenia gravis. Radiofrequency ablation (RFA) is a minimally invasive and curative treatment for other tumors, but RFA has not been used for the early treatment of thymoma.
Methods:
The current study included 13 patients with stage I thymoma who were not candidates for surgical resection or video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery (VATS). All patients underwent first-line CT-guided percutaneous RFA. The feasibility and therapeutic effects of the intervention were thoroughly documented.
Results:
All tumors were completely ablated (13 / 13, 100%). During follow-up (median 80.5 months, range, 64.6-116.9 months), only 1 of the 13 patients had recurrence of thymoma (1 / 13, 7.7%) at 35.5 months after the initial ablation. There were no surgery-related deaths after RFA treatment. The most common complications were fever (13 / 13, 100%) and pain (13 / 13, 100%). There was only one patient who occurred severe puncture-related bleeding during the procedure that needed blood transfusion and intravascular embolization of the punctured-injured vessel.
Conclusion:
CT-guided percutaneous RFA for treatment of stage I thymoma is associated with minor trauma, few complications and good treatment outcomes.
