Radiofrequency thermal ablation (RFA) of hepatic metastases (METS) from breast cancer (BC): an adjunctive tool in the multimodal treatment of advanced disease

Purpose The study was done to analyse the results of a series of radiofrequency ablation (RFA) procedures performed on hepatic metastases (METS) from breast cancer in order to evaluate the clinical impact of this therapy. Materials and methods We analysed 45 patients (mean age 55 years) with 87 METS (mean size 23 mm), in terms of adverse events (AE), complete ablation (CA) at initial follow-up assessment and during the subsequent follow-up (mean 30 months), time to progression, and survival. The correlation between local effectiveness and METS size was investigated. Possible predictors of 3-year survival, including the local effectiveness of RFA (complete ablation maintained at 1-year versus treatment failure) were analysed. Results Nine AE occurred (two major complications, 2.3 %). CA at initial follow-up was obtained in 90 %; 19.7 % CA relapsed, with a time to progression of 8 months. The difference between the mean diameter of maintained CA (22 mm) and that of the treatment failures (30 mm) was highly significant ( p = 0.0005), as was the 30 mm threshold ( p = 0.0062). Overall survival at 1–3 years was 90, 58 and 44 %. At univariate analysis, the local effectiveness of RFA did not reach statistical significance. Conclusion RFA of hepatic METS from breast cancer has high local effectiveness in tumours up to 30 mm, but it is not relevant in determining survival.