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.