ABSTRACT
Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is one of the major malignancies worldwide. Due to advanced or decompensated liver cirrhosis, comorbidity and multicentricity of the tumor lesions, 70-80% of HCC patients are inoperable at the time of diagnosis. Radiofrequency thermal ablation (RFTA) is a new minimally invasive and sage technique for the nonsurgical treatment of HCCs. Similar to other ablation techniques, the treatment strategy depends on several factors, including the patient's clinical status, the stage of liver cirrhosis and of the HCC. RFTA can be performed percutaneously, laparoscopically or after laparotomy. Advanced RFTA equipment, refined techniques of modifying tumor tissue response to RFTA, and combined treatment strategies should lead to better response rates even in larger HCCs.
Subject(s)
Carcinoma, Hepatocellular/surgery , Catheter Ablation/methods , Liver Neoplasms/surgery , Catheter Ablation/adverse effects , Catheter Ablation/instrumentation , Combined Modality Therapy , Humans , Liver Cirrhosis/complications , Neoplasm Staging , PrognosisABSTRACT
In the majority of patients hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is associated with liver cirrhosis. Advanced or decompensated liver cirrhosis, comorbidity and multicentricity make 70-80% of HCCs inoperable at the time of diagnosis. Therefore, percutaneous ethanol injection (PEI) and radiofrequency thermal ablation (RFTA) are non-surgical therapeutic options for patients with small HCCs. In patients with advanced tumor stage transarterial chemoembolization (TACE) and its variants showed no survival benefit on the basis of randomized trials. In several studies, however, combined treatment strategies like TACE and PEI or RFTA after occlusion of tumor blood supply in the treatment of advanced HCC seems to result in a survival benefit. All HCC patients should be included in randomized treatment studies.