Principles of Radiofrequency Ablation

Image-guided tumor ablation is a minimally invasive strategy to treat focal tumors in the liver, lung, kidney, bone, and adrenal glands by inducing irreversible cellular injury through the application of thermal, and more recently, nonthermal energy, or chemical injection. Given the multiplicity of treatment types and potential complexity of paradigms in oncology, and the wider application of thermal ablation techniques, a thorough understanding of the basic principles and recent advances in thermal ablation is a necessary prerequisite for their effective clinical use. This chapter will review several of these key concepts related to tumor ablation including those that relate to performing a clinical ablation, such as understanding the goals of therapy and mechanisms of tissue heating or tumor destruction, and understanding the proper role of tumor ablation and the strategies that are being pursued to improve overall ablation outcome.