Table 1.

Outcomes following thermal ablation of osseus lesions

	RFA	MWA	LITT	Cryoablation	MRgHIFU
Osteoid osteoma	Success rates: 91.7–96.9%	Success rates similar to RFA [32]	Success rates similar to RFA [34, 72–74]	Good pain reduction, with low rates of minor complications (14.3%) and recurrence (4.8%) [75]	97% complete resolution of pain, evidence of bone healing and no complications up to 24 months [35]
	No correlation between treatment failure and ablation duration, patient age or lesion location [12–14, 71]	Effective pain relief at 1 month in 92.3–100 [64]
		In appendicular OO, skin protection is key
Malignant lesions: curative intent	67% tumour-free survival 1 year post-RFA or CA in oligometastases [76]	No large series analysing the feasibility, safety and efficacy of MWA in the curative setting		In oligometastatic disease, local control in 68%, with 1- and 2-year survival of 91% and 84%, median disease-free survival of 7 months and disease-free survival of 25% and 7% at 1 and 2 years
	100% overall survival at 1 year for sarcoma oligometastases [6]			Tumour-free survival of 21 months [21, 76]
Malignant lesions: palliative intent	Particularly useful in patients with recalcitrant pain [77, 78]	Effective pain palliation in metastases [1, 4, 5, 23, 25]		Safe and effective method for pain palliation with early reduction in pain scores and analgesic requirements sustained at 1 month, with further improvement in the following 6 months [79–81]	Pain relief in 2/3 patients with painful metastases within 3 days. 64.3% of patients improved pain score of at least 2 points on the numerical rating scale at 3 months
	Pain relief superior in axial compared to appendicular tumours	Estimated pain reduction was 5.3/10 at 1 month; and 5.3/10 at last review (20–24 weeks in 4/5 studies) [64]		Good local tumour control (79% at 12 months) [82]	23.2% of patients had a complete response [48]
	Bipolar radiofrequency ablation (b-RFA) with increased target temperature (> 70 °C) in combination with vertebroplasty achieved pain relief (80% efficacy) and local tumour control in oligometastatic/oligoprogressive lesions (100% efficacy) [78]