About MICROWAVE ABLATION
Ablation offers a non-surgical localized method for shrinking and killing tumor cells with heat while sparing healthy tissue.
Applied directly to the tumor itself, there is no adverse affect on a patient’s overall health. Used primarily in the liver, this procedure uses electromagnetic waves to thermally ablate solid tumor cells. It is generally used for the treatment and palliation of solid tumors in patients who are nonsurgical candidates.
This outpatient treatment is better tolerated when compared to systemic therapies used to fight cancer. Therefore, microwave ablation may be repeated as often as it is needed.
Who is a candidate for microwave ablation?
Patients with tumors of the liver (primary and secondary hepatic cancers combined with surgery to treat early stage cancers), and other cancers (kidney, adrenal, lung) as well as bone lesions may benefit from ablation therapy.
Ablation effectively works to shrink small- to medium-sized tumors. Decreasing a small number of lesions (ideally no larger than 3 to 5 centimeters in size) or treating new tumors as they arise can help alleviate the pain and other debilitating symptoms caused by tumors.
While tumors themselves often are not painful, they may press against nerves or interfere with vital organs, which in turn, can cause pain.
Recovery
Generally, there is a short recovery time and one can resume usual activities in a few days after completing treatment.