Tumor ablation
Excision or removal of the tumor without surgery is one of the operations of the interventional radiologist, in which the cancer cells are destroyed locally without removing the tumor, and it is done by inserting a needle or a small medical catheter from the anterior abdominal wall until it reaches the location of the tumor accurately by using sound waves or CT scan to accurately determine the location and dimensions of the tumor. The patient does not need to stay in the hospital afterward and is discharged on the same day.
The best results can be obtained using this technique if the tumor is no more than 3 cm in size, and it may be used with other techniques in larger tumors.
Methods used to kill tumor cells inside the liver vary, including:
- Radiofrequency ablation.
- Microwave thermotherapy.
- Ablation using ethanol.
- Cryotherapy.
Local resection is better than surgical treatment in terms of a lower rate of complications, and bleeding, lower death rate resulting from complications of surgical treatment, lower recovery time after treatment, and lower hospital stay, which reduces side effects and infection.
Cryotherapy for Liver cancer treatment
- Cryotherapy is a treatment technique that exposes cells to a severe degree of cooling or freezing, which leads to cell death due to their intolerance to cooling conditions.
- Cooling cauterizes and kills cells.
- Cryotherapy for liver cancer is performed in a minimally invasive procedure, during which the surgeon inserts a cryogenic device into the tumor area with the help of ultrasound and then injects liquid nitrogen directly into the tumor.
- The temperature of liquid nitrogen is -198 degrees Celsius, and the extreme freezing point when tumor cells are exposed to it kills these cells.
microwave thermotherapy
- In microwave thermotherapy, radio waves are used to heat cancer cells to a point that leads to their death.
- Microwave thermotherapy has properties that lead to heating water to a high temperature inside the cells, which causes the death of these cells.
- Cancer cells are heated by inserting a needle through the abdomen into the tumor area with the help of ultrasound to see the location of the tumor.
- This needle is then connected to an electric current to heat the cells.
Ethanol ablation
- In this process, 100% pure alcohol is injected directly into the tumor using a needle through the skin or during surgery.
- Injecting pure alcohol into cells causes them to die.