Table 1.

A summary of current tumor ablation therapies.

Treatment	Area of Efficacy	Advantages	Disadvantages	Side Effects
Radiofrequency (RF)	Liver, lung, bone, breast, kidney, adrenals	Minimal Side effects, Relatively safe, inexpensive efficient procedure	Small heating range, requires grounding pads, heat sink effect	Post-ablation syndrome, skin burns
Microwave (MW)	Liver, lung, bone, breast, kidney, adrenals	Less heat sink effect, no grounding pads, larger area of ablation	Local treatment, non-specific	Post-ablation syndrome
Cryoablation	Prostate, kidney, liver, lung, bone, breast	Can be done with US, CT, MRI guidance, same day procedure	Heat-sink effect, recurrence more often than RF or MW	Cryo-shock
Photodynamic Therapy (PDT)	Head, neck, esophagus, bladder, skin, lung, brain	Minimal long-term side effects, superior healing, no scarring	Painful procedure, skin photosensitivity, cannot treat deeply set tumors	Prolonged light sensitivity
High Intensity Focused Ultrasound (HIFU)	Liver, kidney, pancreas, breast, prostate, abdomen	Confined accurate lesion, completely noninvasive, non toxic	Difficult to focus US wave, expensive, long procedure time, difficult to maneuver near air pockets, or bone	Skin burns, organ system specific side effects
Chemotherapy/Radiation Therapy	All	Well-known, most used and effective	Recurrence, long procedure, multiple dose regimen, many side effects	Hair loss, vomiting, cosmetic defects, functional morbidity