Abstract
Radiofrequency ablation is a simple and powerful tool for destruction of small liver tumors on an outpatient basis. The major question is its role in preservation of quality and length of life, given the high frequency of intrahepatic relapse. Even surgical resection has a 70% to 75% recurrence rate, so ablation would not be expected to perform any better. However, ablation offers the opportunity to destroy tumors in patients who are not resection candidates. Close imaging follow-up may permit repeated ablations of recurrent disease. Furthermore, of the greater than 500,000 people being followed annually after resection of a primary colon cancer, only 2% are screened with serial imaging of the liver, so most hepatic metastases are not detected until they are too large to ablate. This is a large pool of patients who might benefit from routine radiological screening, with percutaneous ablation of lesions as they appear.
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