Thermal Ablation's Advantage in Cancer Treatment

Thermal Ablation Advances in Cancer Treatment Thermal ablation, or tumor-burning therapy, is a procedure in which special needles are guided into cancer tissue using ultrasound, computed tomography (CT), and occasionally MRI (MR), delivering high heat to destroy tumors. With increasing use of this treatment, cancer therapy is achieving encouraging results. As technology has advanced over the years, interventional radiologists have been able to perform this therapy with more comfortable equipment, while patient comfort has simultaneously improved.

Prof. Dr. Aylin Hasanefendioğlu Bayrak from the Radiology Department at Yeni Yüzyıl Üniversitesi Gaziosmanpaşa Hastanesi provided brief information on the key characteristics of thermal ablation therapy.

The treatment is fundamentally based on destroying tumor tissue through high heat. However, because high heat can be extremely painful, this procedure is performed under general anesthesia to ensure painlessness. As a result, through a small needle puncture, diseased tissue can be completely destroyed within 20-30 minutes at most. The therapy is most frequently used for liver tumors, and less commonly for kidney and lung tumors. When multiple cancer sites are present in an organ, each lesion can be treated separately. During procedure planning, the size of the tumor and its location within the organ are very important, he explained. He noted that one of the most significant advantages is the absence of large surgical sutures as in open surgery, which allows patients to resume their daily activities more comfortably after treatment. He stated that suspicious lesions found during routine follow-up examinations typically undergo biopsy to distinguish benign from malignant tumors, and that for patients diagnosed with cancer, the most appropriate treatment is selected from options such as major surgery, the easier-to-apply thermal ablation therapy, or drug treatment options such as chemotherapy alone, depending on the extent of disease and any comorbidities. With thermal ablation, because the cancerous tissue is accessed under guidance from ultrasound, computed tomography (CT), or MRI equipment, accurate identification of the area to be treated is straightforward, he noted. Prof. Dr. Aylin Hasanefendioğlu Bayrak stated that cryoablation, a similar treatment method in which tumor tissue is frozen, is less common but is preferred in some patients.

In both methods, imaging performed at intervals of 1-3 months after treatment shows the tumor gradually shrinking and appearing as a scar-like mark.

In addition to malignant tumor treatment, the therapy is sometimes applied to benign tumors. For example, it is used in osteoid osteoma, benign bone tumors, and large thyroid nodules that cosmetically trouble patients, with extremely successful results achieved in both cases. Particularly in osteoid osteoma, severe pain that patients frequently report before treatment, often occurring at night, is seen to disappear within 24 hours after treatment.

Prof. Dr. Aylin Hasanefendioğlu Bayrak summarized the topic as follows:

The guidance of this method by imaging techniques enables accurate targeting of the tissue to be treated, thereby increasing treatment efficacy and reducing the probability of recurrence. Moreover, there are no large surgical sutures as in open surgery, thus allowing patients to resume their daily activities more comfortably after treatment. The procedure duration is shorter than open surgery, which is advantageous for relatively high-risk patient groups such as those with cardiac disease who are candidates for anesthesia. For all these reasons, interventional radiology is gaining increasing importance in the treatment of oncology patients.