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Cancer Resources > Cancer News > Cancer News from Reuters > Reuters Cancer News > 2003 > January
Radiofrequency appears superior to cryosurgery in preventing liver metastases
Last Updated: 2003-01-02 10:14:52 -0400 (Reuters Health)
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - As a treatment for unresectable hepatic malignancies, percutaneous radiofrequency (PRF) and cryosurgery (PCS) have comparable initial success and complication rates, but PRF appears to be better than PCS at preventing recurrent disease, according to a recent report.
Dr. Rene Adam and colleagues, from Hopital Paul Brousse in Villejuif, France compared the outcomes of 64 patients with unresectable liver cancer who were treated with PRF or PCS. The minimum follow-up period was 6 months.
The researchers' findings are published in the December issue of the Archives of Surgery.
The complication rates in both groups were comparable: 29% in the PCS group and 24% in the PRF group. The initial success rates in both groups were 83%.
The local recurrence rate following PCS was 53%, compared with only 18% for PRF (p = 0.003), the investigators note. This difference was primarily due to a higher rate of recurrence for patients with metastatic malignancies in the PCS group. The recurrence rate of hepatocellular carcinoma was similar in both treatment groups.
On multivariate analysis, PCS and the use of more than one treatment were identified as risk factors for local tumor recurrence.
The findings indicate that "PRF results in a lower rate of local recurrence than PCS, particularly in those with metastatic malignancies," the authors conclude. "These retrospective results open the way to a prospective randomized trial comparing the 2 treatments to state definitively the suggested superiority of radiofrequency," they add.
Arch Surg 2002;137:1332-1339.
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