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World J Hepatol. Jan 28, 2016; 8(3): 191-199
Published online Jan 28, 2016. doi: 10.4254/wjh.v8.i3.191
Ablation techniques for primary and metastatic liver tumors
Michael J Ryan, Jonathon Willatt, Bill S Majdalany, Ania Z Kielar, Suzanne Chong, Julie A Ruma, Amit Pandya
Michael J Ryan, Jonathon Willatt, Bill S Majdalany, Suzanne Chong, Julie A Ruma, Amit Pandya, Department of Radiology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, United States
Ania Z Kielar, Department of Radiology, University of Ottawa, Ontario K1H 8LZ, Canada
Author contributions: Ryan MJ was the primary author, producing the initial manuscripts; Majdalany BS reviewed and edited the section on microwave ablation; Kielar AZ reviewed and edited the section on RFA; Willatt J reviewed and edited the sections on cryoablation and IRE; Chong S and Ruma JA researched and collated the evidence for the efficacy of each ablation modality, and selected the references to support the conclusions; Pandya A reviewed and edited the section on choice of imaging modality and was respo nsible for the references.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors have no conflicts of interest.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Dr. Jonathon Willatt, Department of Radiology, University of Michigan, 500 S State st, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, United States. jwillatt@med.umich.edu
Telephone: +1-734-8455650 Fax: +1-734-8453228
Received: November 3, 2015
Peer-review started: November 3, 2015
First decision: November 24, 2015
Revised: December 1, 2015
Accepted: January 5, 2016
Article in press: January 7, 2016
Published online: January 28, 2016
Abstract

Ablative treatment methods have emerged as safe and effective therapies for patients with primary and secondary liver tumors who are not surgical candidates at the time of diagnosis. This article reviews the current literature and describes the techniques, complications and results for radiofrequency ablation, microwave ablation, cryoablation, and irreversible electroporation.

Keywords: Liver, Ablation, Hepatocellular carcinoma, Metastasis, Radiofrequency, Microwave, Cryoablation

Core tip: Innovative ablation techniques, including radiofrequency ablation, microwave ablation, cryoablation and irreversible electroporation have become accepted as treatment modalities for patients with early stage tumor or for single metastases. This review paper describes the available ablation techniques and summarizes the evidence supporting the use of each modality.