Percutaneous radiofrequency ablation may benefit selected patients with liver metastases from ovarian cancer, according to results of a preliminary study published in the September 2006 issue of the American Journal of Roentgenology.

US researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital studied six patients with advanced ovarian cancer who underwent radiofrequency ablation to destroy isolated lesions in the liver compared with standard therapy for patients with stage III and IV disease consisting of resection, repeated if needed and combined with chemotherapy as needed.

“Some studies have shown that patients with advanced ovarian cancer can survive longer if they have repeated surgery to remove recurrent or new disease,” said Debra Gervais, MD, lead author of the study. “We wanted to see if we could use radiofrequency ablation instead of repeated open surgical resection for some of these patients.”

After a single session, radiofreqency ablation resulted in complete necrosis of lesions in five of the six patients. Over follow-up (ranging from 8 months to 3.3 years), four of the five patients had no evidence of recurrence in the liver region that had been treated by radiofrequency ablation.

“Treatment of ovarian cancer requires multi-modality approaches including surgery and chemotherapy, but our study indicates that a small number of patients may benefit from radiofrequency ablation instead of repeated surgery,” Gervais said.