Hendriquez R, Keihanian T, Goyal J, Abraham RR, Mishra R, Girotra M. Radiofrequency ablation in the management of primary hepatic and biliary tumors. World J Gastrointest Oncol 2022; 14(1): 203-215 [PMID: 35116111 DOI: 10.4251/wjgo.v14.i1.203]
Corresponding Author of This Article
Mohit Girotra, FACG, FACP, MD, Digestive Health Institute, Section of Gastroenterology and Interventional Endoscopy, Swedish Medical Center, 1221 Madison Street, Ste 1220, Seattle, WA 98104, United States. girotra.mohit@gmail.com
Research Domain of This Article
Gastroenterology & Hepatology
Article-Type of This Article
Minireviews
Open-Access Policy of This Article
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/
World J Gastrointest Oncol. Jan 15, 2022; 14(1): 203-215 Published online Jan 15, 2022. doi: 10.4251/wjgo.v14.i1.203
Radiofrequency ablation in the management of primary hepatic and biliary tumors
Richard Hendriquez, Tara Keihanian, Jatinder Goyal, Rtika R Abraham, Rajnish Mishra, Mohit Girotra
Richard Hendriquez, Department of Internal Medicine, University of Central Florida, Orlando, FL 32816, United States
Tara Keihanian, Department of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, University of Miami, Miami, FL 33136, United States
Jatinder Goyal, Department of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Wellspan Digestive Health - York Hospital, York, PA 17403, United States
Rtika R Abraham, Department of Endocrinology, Swedish Medical Center, Seattle, WA 98104, United States
Rajnish Mishra, Mohit Girotra, Digestive Health Institute, Section of Gastroenterology and Interventional Endoscopy, Swedish Medical Center, Seattle, WA 98104, United States
Author contributions: Henriquez R, Keihanian T and Goyal G performed data review, prepared and edited the manuscript; Abraham RR and Mishra R performed edited manuscript; Girotra M conceptualized and prepared, edited the manuscript and provided final approval; all authors wrote, read and approved the final manuscript.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors have no disclosures or conflicts of interest.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (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/
Corresponding author: Mohit Girotra, FACG, FACP, MD, Digestive Health Institute, Section of Gastroenterology and Interventional Endoscopy, Swedish Medical Center, 1221 Madison Street, Ste 1220, Seattle, WA 98104, United States. girotra.mohit@gmail.com
Received: March 28, 2021 Peer-review started: March 28, 2021 First decision: June 7, 2021 Revised: June 15, 2021 Accepted: December 7, 2021 Article in press: December 7, 2021 Published online: January 15, 2022 Processing time: 288 Days and 3.1 Hours
Abstract
In the United States, 80%-90% of primary hepatic tumors are hepatocellular carcinomas and 10%-15% are cholangiocarcinomas (CCA), both with high mortality rate, particularly CCA, which portends a worse prognosis. Traditional management with surgery has good outcomes in appropriately selected patients; however, novel ablative treatment options have emerged, such as radiofrequency ablation (RFA), which can improve the prognosis of both hepatic and biliary tumors. RFA is aimed to generate an area of necrosis within the targeted tissue by applying thermal therapy via an electrode, with a goal to completely eradicate the tumor while preserving surrounding healthy tissue. Role of RFA in management of hepatic and biliary tumors forms the focus of our current mini-review article.
Core Tip: Radiofrequency ablation (RFA) generates an area of necrosis within the targeted tissue by applying thermal therapy via an electrode, with a goal to completely eradicate the tumor while preserving surrounding healthy tissue. RFA can maintain biliary drainage by tumor ablation within the biliary ducts or occluded metallic stents, which improves survival and quality of life in unresectable cholangiocarcinomas patients. In hepatocellular carcinoma, RFA is used alone or in combination (with hepatectomy/transcatheter arterial chemoembolization) for ablation of tumors < 2 cm, and improves local tumor progression and recurrence-free survival, and considered by some to be comparative to hepatectomy.
