RF Ablation Shows Promise for Treating Breast Tumors

A small trial has found that radiofrequency (RF) ablation may treat some breast tumors without surgery and with little cosmetic harm. The results were reported at the Breast Cancer Symposium in San Antonio (TX, USA).

In the trial, 30 women with early stage breast cancer who were already scheduled to have a mastectomy or lumpectomy agreed to have RF ablation of their tumor first. When their breast tissue was removed, researchers examined whether the tumors has been destroyed. In 28 of the women (93%), the tumors were completely eradicated when the lesion had been accurately targeted by ultrasound.

The M.D. Anderson Cancer Center (Houston, TX, USA) participated in the trial and will start a new 20-patient trial of the technique within several months. The women in this trial will receive only RF ablation and will be closely monitored for several years. Researchers say the tumors should be two centimeters or smaller in size, clearly identifiable by ultrasound, and not up against the skin or chest wall.

"Radiofrequency ablation is a nonsurgical lumpectomy that may be used to treat small invasive breast cancers in the future,” says Eva Singletary, M.D., a surgeon at M.D. Anderson who is pioneering use of the technique. "It has the potential to offer local control of cancer with an even better cosmetic result than lumpectomy.”





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