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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
Core Tip

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.