Urological Oncology Percutaneous Radiofrequency Ablation of Renal Tumors: A Single-Center Experience

Purpose: To evaluate the oncological outcomes, complications, and changes in renal function in patients treated with computed tomography-guided percutaneous radio-frequency ablation (RFA) for small renal tumors. Materials and Methods: The charts of patients who underwent RFA from 2006 to 2011 at a single institution were reviewed. Oncological and functional outcomes were assessed. Statistical analyses were performed with IBM SPSS ver. 18.0 (IBM Co., Armonk, NY, USA). Results: A total of 44 RFAs were done in 40 patients. Biopsy prior to RFA was performed in 79.6 % of procedures. Of those, 68.6 % had renal cell carcinoma (RCC). Mean tumor diameter was 26.2 mm. Grade I complications occurred in 25 % of cases (n=11, pain or elevated temperature) and grade II complications in 2.3 % (n=1, perirenal bleeding needing two units of blood transfusion). Serum creatinine slightly increased by 0.14 mg/dL at 2 years after RFA (p＜0.004). Tumor recurrences were suspected in 8 of 43 cases during follow-up. In five patients, the suspected recurrence was a false-positive as shown by a negative biopsy result or lack of contrast enhancement on subsequent imaging. The verified recurrence rate was 7.7 % in all tumors and 2.5 % in RCC at a mean follow-up of 2 years. Tumor-free survival was 90 % in all patients and 87.5 % in those with RCC. Metastasis-free survival was 97.5 % and cancer-specific survival was 100%. Conclusions: Percutaneous computed tomography-guided RFA shows promising re-sults at intermediate follow-up. Suspected tumor recurrences are frequently false-pos-itives findings. A longer follow-up is required to verify the durability of these results