Multimodal Liver-Directed Management of Neuroendocrine Hepatic Metastases

Table 5

Summary of liver-directed ablation modalities.

Ablation technique	Mechanism of tumor injury	Maximum size of target lesion	Comments/caveats
RFA	Heat	1.6 cm: single electrode 5 cm: array	Prone to heat sink from adjacent vessel, ↓ control for lesions >4 cm
MWA	Heat	2 cm: single needle 4 cm: parallel needles	Less prone to heat sink, but fewer supportive data than RFA
Cryoablation	Cold	4 cm: single needle 6 cm: multiple needles	↓ control for lesions >4 cm, risk of ↓ platelets and coagulopathy
Alcohol	Toxic	4 cm	Adjunctive only