The Role of Interventional Radiology and Image-Guided Ablation in Primary Liver Cancer

Abstract

Percutaneous image-guided ablation is now an established treatment in the control of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). While liver transplantation remains the definitive treatment, a lack of donors worldwide excludes this treatment as a realistic possibility for most sufferers. Surgical resection provides the opportunity for cure; however, stringent patient selection criteria employed to avoid complications often means many patients are not eligible for surgery. Thus percutaneous ablation is often an ideal choice for the minimally invasive treatment of early-stage patients who are ineligible for surgery, which can be curative in itself or be utilised as a bridge to future transplantation. With a number of ablation technologies available in the interventional radiologist’s armamentarium, there are few lesions which cannot be treated percutaneously—it is therefore paramount that referral for image-guided ablation is considered in patients who cannot be treated surgically.