RF Ablation for Early-Stage Breast Cancer

A study has shown that heating breast tumors with radiofrequency (RF) ablation can kill the cancerous cells and may represent a less-invasive way of treating early-stage breast cancer. The findings were reported in the December 2001 issue of Cancer.

Lumpectomy followed by a course of radiation has proven to be as effective for early-stage breast cancer as mastectomy. This has increased interest in finding an even less-invasive way of treating stage 1 disease. The researchers, from the G. Pascale National Tumor Institute in Naples (Italy), decided to determine whether the success in treating liver tumors with RF ablation could also produce good results in breast cancer patients.

The ablation procedure uses ultrasound images on a monitor to guide a thin metal needle through the patient's skin into the tumor. The needle opens to extend antenna-like probes in all directions. The RF energy passes through the probes into the tumor tissue, heating it hot enough to kill the tumor cells and a small rim of normal tissue, leaving a safety margin around the tumor. The researchers used the procedure on 20 patients with stage 1 disease and six women with stage II tumors 3 cm or smaller. After treatment, the tumors were surgically removed from all patients and tested to see if any cancer cells survived. The results showed that no cancerous cells survived in or around the tumor in 25 of the 26 patients. One patient's removed tumor showed some cancer cells still alive near the needle insertion site.

The results of any long-term follow-up are not yet known. Some doctors have concerns because the procedure requires general anesthesia and because the scar tissue formed by burned tissue may be less cosmetically appealing than that formed by a lumpectomy.

"This is an interesting new technique that might have a niche somewhere, but its current limitations make it hard to see any advantage in breast cancer treatment over other methods already in use,” said Dr. Jeanne Petrek, attending surgeon at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (New York, NY, USA).