What is ablation therapy?
Ablation therapies are minimally-invasive options that destroy — or ablate — cancer cells with extreme heat or cold. Performed by a surgeon or interventional radiologist, a special needle or probe is inserted into the tumor. This probe is inserted through the skin. The probe then delivers extreme heat or cold to the tumor. Imaging scans are performed in real-time to guide the probe’s placement and monitor the treatment, ensuring complete tumor ablation.
These options are less invasive than surgery to remove all or part of the kidney, and accordingly less morbidity. These are important options for patients with smaller tumors or for patients who are unable to undergo surgery.
Roswell Park offers these ablation therapies for the treatment of kidney cancer:
- Cryoablation uses a very cold gas such as liquid nitrogen released through the probe to freeze the cancer cells, killing them.
- Radiofrequency Ablation (RFA) uses radio waves to generate extreme heat in the tumor, thereby destroying it.
- Microwave Ablation uses microwaves to generate the heat necessary to destroy the tumor.
Our expertise — the Roswell Park advantage
Achieving cancer control with ablation therapy is largely dependent on the radiologist’s accuracy in targeting the kidney tumor. Renal tumor targeting is technically challenging and requires a high level of experience and expertise. Our interventional radiologists have abundant experience and among the highest volume of percutaneous renal tumor targeting procedures in the country.