Percutaneous thermal ablation for the treatment of colorectal liver metastases and hepatocellular carcinoma: a comparison of local therapeutic efficacy.

Liu, Ming; Huang, Guang-Liang; Xu, Ming; Pan, Fu-Shun; Lu, Ming-de; Zheng, Ke-Guo; Kuang, Ming; Xie, Xiao-Yan

AIM This study aimed to compare the local therapeutic efficacy of percutaneous thermal ablation for colorectal liver metastases (CRLM) and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). METHODS One hundred sixty-one CRLM nodules in 101 patients and 122 HCC nodules in 97 patients were treated with thermal ablation. Complications and local efficacy were retrospectively compared. RESULTS Major complications were observed in two (2.0%) patients in the CRLM group and one (1.0%) in the HCC group (p = 1.000). The complete ablation (CA) rate of lesions ≤ 3 cm was lower in the CRLM group than in the HCC group (p = 0.018). After a mean follow-up period of 21.1 ± 20.7 months in the CRLM group and 22.1 ± 17.6 months in the HCC group, the local tumour progression (LTP) rate of lesions > 3 cm was higher in the CRLM group than in the HCC group (p = 0.036). The multivariate analysis revealed that only safety margin (≤ 0.5 cm/> 0.5 cm) was a significant predictor of LTP in both CRLM and HCC. CONCLUSIONS To achieve better local tumour control, thermal ablation should be more aggressive for CRLM than for HCC, especially for large tumours in clinical.