Although laparoscopic adrenalectomy has remained the standard of care for the treatment for adrenal tumors, percutaneous image-guided ablation therapy, such as chemical ablation, radiofrequency ablation, cryoablation, and microwave ablation, has been shown to be clinically useful in many nonsurgical candidates.
Ablation therapy has been used to treat both functioning adenomas and malignant tumors, including primary adrenal carcinoma and metastasis. For patients with functioning adenomas, biochemical and symptomatic improvement is achieved in 96 to 100% after ablation; for patients with malignant adrenal neoplasms, however, the survival benefit from ablation therapy remains unclear, though good initial results have been reported. This article outlines the current role of ablation therapy for adrenal lesions, as well as identifying some of the technical considerations for this procedure.
Written by:
Yamakado K. Are you the author?
Department of Interventional Radiology, Mie University School of Medicine, Mie, Japan.
Reference: Semin Intervent Radiol. 2014 Jun;31(2):149-56.
doi: 10.1055/s-0034-1373797
PubMed Abstract
PMID: 25049444
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