RSNA News - March 2005

A press release has been sent to the medical news media for the following scientific article appearing in the March 2005 issue of Radiology (rsna.org/radiologyjnl):

"Early-Stage Hepatocellular Carcinoma in Patients with Cirrhosis: Long-term Results of Percutaneous Image-guided Radiofrequency Ablation"

Radiofrequency (RF) ablation is an effective first-line treatment for cirrhotic patients with early-stage hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) who were excluded from surgery.

Riccardo Lencioni, M.D., and colleagues from the University of Pisa, Via Roma in Italy performed RF ablation on 187 patients who had Child class A or B cirrhosis with HCC.

One year following treatment, 97 percent of the patients were alive. At year three, 71 percent were alive and at year five, 48 percent of patients were alive.

The researchers write: "Findings from our study indicate that RF ablation can be currently considered as the first-line treatment of choice for patients with early-stage HCC who were excluded from surgery. Ethanol injection and segmental transarterial chemoembolization, however, may still have a valuable role for those patients who are not suitable candidates for RF ablation because of an unfavorable tumor location. Appropriate use of each treatment technique can be accomplished only when the therapeutic strategy is decided by a multidisciplinary team and is tailored to the individual patient and to the features of the disease."
(Radiology 2005;234:961-967)
 

Radiofrequency Ablation of Hepatocellular Carcinoma: Treatment Success as Defined by Explant Pathology

In a second study featured in the press release, David S.K. Lu, M.D., and colleagues from the University of California, Los Angeles School of Medicine retrospectively evaluated the effectiveness of RF ablation of HCC using pathologic examination of the explanted liver.

Forty-seven HCC nodules in 24 patients were treated with RF ablation in single or double sessions prior to liver transplantation.

Based on histology, 35 of the 47 (74 percent) ablated tumors were found to be successfully treated after a mean ablation-transplantation interval of 7.5 months. These included 29 of 35 (83 percent) tumors less than three centimeters.

Images of a 33-year-old man with chronic hepatitis B. (a) Contrast-enhanced transverse spoiled gradient-recalled-echo MR image obtained before ablation shows two hypervascular lesions in segments V (black arrow) and VI (white arrow). (b) Contrast-enhanced transverse CT image obtained 3 weeks after ablation shows hypoattenuating, nonenhancing coagulation defects at the treatment sites (arrows) with no abnormal nodular enhancement suggesting residual tumor. © 2005 RSNA. All rights reserved. Printed with permission.

(Radiology 2005;234:954-960)

RSNA press releases are available at www.rsna.org/media.