Objectives
To evaluate our experience with radiofrequency ablation (RFA) for renal masses and to report on clinical, radiological and post-RFA biopsy results.
Patients and methods
The study collected clinical, radiological and pathological data from 150 consecutive patients who were treated with RFA of a renal mass between 2002 and 2008 at a tertiary referral centre.
Post-ablation biopsies were performed in patients with non-involuting lesions or suspicion of recurrence on imaging.
Comparisons were performed using the Mann–Whitney U-test.
Survival was estimated using the Kaplan–Meier method.
Results
Renal malignancy was found in 72.1% of patients based on the initial diagnostic biopsy.
Median tumour size was 2.6 cm, 22.7% of patients had a solitary kidney, and most were central tumours.
The mean follow-up period was 40.1 months.
There was no recurrence in 96.7% of the entire cohort.
Cancer-specific survival for 106 patients with sporadic, localized, biopsy proven renal malignancy was 100% at 38.5 months.
Biopsies were obtained in 43 patients for a median of 21 months after RFA.
Among 38 patients who had biopsy for non-involuting, non-enhancing zones of ablation, three (7.9%) were positive.
Conclusions
Short-term cancer-specific survival after RFA remains excellent and most cases are successful based on a combination of imaging and post-ablation biopsies performed almost 2 years after treatment.
There were four out of 150 (2.7%) patients who had recurrences with tissue confirmation; one of these patients was detected on imaging and three (2%) were radiologically occult.
The absence of enhancement in the setting of non-involuting lesions is not always a guarantee of a successful ablation.