Any experience with RFA

Devasted
Devasted Member Posts: 185
edited March 2014 in Colorectal Cancer #1
My husband may be a candidate for RFA to treat liver mets? Anyone have any experience with RFA? The onc. is checking with the surg. onc. and hoping this is a real possibility.
Thanks for your help!

Comments

  • Sundanceh
    Sundanceh Member Posts: 4,392 Member
    #2
    RFA Survivor Here!
    Hi D

    Yes, I've danced with RFA. It is amazingly effective...any surgeon will tell you that liver resection is the Gold Standard. However, statistics (and I'm a living one and not outdated) show that RFA has an equal to or better success rate than a traditional liver resesection.

    Mine was an open procedure, because initially we were going the way of open liver resection - when they opened me up, Woops, Plan B, as my liver was not in condition to do this surgery.

    So, they switched over to RFA and burned a tumor the size of a small orange out of my liver and sewed me back up. My tumor was so large it was close to major blood vessels so the surgeon went as fas as he could and had to stop - he thought he had gotten all of it.

    There was a narrow margin where the RFA was unable to get to, but my surgeon had the foresight to place "marker beads" in and around the tumor in case we needed to go the route of CyberKnife - which we had to do and 3x treatments later, and my tumor was totally eradicated from my liver - I'm past the 2 year mark with no recurrence - recurrence generally happens in the 1st year, so as more time goes the better this gets - I'm at 2 years, so knock on wood.

    It's a great procedure and if he's eligibile, then that will be great!

    Take care as always and nice to talk to you again:)

    -Craig
  • msccolon
    msccolon Member Posts: 1,917 Member
    #3
    RFA experience
    I didn't have RFA (Radio Frequency Ablation) but I had MA (Microwave Ablation) which is a newer version of the RFA. The procedure is even faster and less damaging to surrounding tissue than RFA. I initially contacted Dr. Wang, the radiology oncologist, after finding out I had a met to my liver, asking about Sir Spheres. He stated that Sir Spheres are reserved for many mets and/or large mets, which mine wasn't; a single met around 1cm. The ablation involved the placement of a probe directly into the tumor, with assistance of a CT scan. It can take a while, merely because precision in placement is necessary and can be tedious. The actual ablation itself takes no time at all! I had a spot on my left adrenal gland ablated at the same time and the total procedure took around 4 hours, and all I had were 3 small spots covered with bandages on the outside. There is an overnight stay, just to watch for any possible complications. The recovery time for ablation is very short and the results can be fantastic! The waves basically obliterate the tumor cells with very little collateral damage! I think it's a wonderful procedure, and make sure you go to somebody who does this all the time, just because I prefer to be worked on by people who do the exact procedure in question often enough for it to be "routine" for them. Definitely consider it as a viable option!
    mary
  • Devasted
    Devasted Member Posts: 185
    #4
    msccolon said:

    RFA experience
    I didn't have RFA (Radio Frequency Ablation) but I had MA (Microwave Ablation) which is a newer version of the RFA. The procedure is even faster and less damaging to surrounding tissue than RFA. I initially contacted Dr. Wang, the radiology oncologist, after finding out I had a met to my liver, asking about Sir Spheres. He stated that Sir Spheres are reserved for many mets and/or large mets, which mine wasn't; a single met around 1cm. The ablation involved the placement of a probe directly into the tumor, with assistance of a CT scan. It can take a while, merely because precision in placement is necessary and can be tedious. The actual ablation itself takes no time at all! I had a spot on my left adrenal gland ablated at the same time and the total procedure took around 4 hours, and all I had were 3 small spots covered with bandages on the outside. There is an overnight stay, just to watch for any possible complications. The recovery time for ablation is very short and the results can be fantastic! The waves basically obliterate the tumor cells with very little collateral damage! I think it's a wonderful procedure, and make sure you go to somebody who does this all the time, just because I prefer to be worked on by people who do the exact procedure in question often enough for it to be "routine" for them. Definitely consider it as a viable option!
    mary

    RFA --- where
    Where was your RFA performed?

    Thanks again, you guys. You don't know what a great help this site has been to us! ;)
  • Sundanceh
    Sundanceh Member Posts: 4,392 Member
    #5
    Devasted said:

    RFA --- where
    Where was your RFA performed?

    Thanks again, you guys. You don't know what a great help this site has been to us! ;)

    Dallas, TX
    Hi D

    Mine was done at Baylor hospital in Dallas. My surgeon was/is one of the leaders in RFA and helped pioneer the surgery - he is world renowned and teaches globally...Dr. Goldstein. His specialty is the liver - he does livers and and liver "transplants." '

    He's one of the top 3 guys there.

    -Craig
  • PhillieG
    PhillieG Member Posts: 4,866 Member
    #6
    RFA to Lungs
    I had the procedure done to my lungs on 2 occasions at Sloan Kettering. It was a breeze.
    -phil
  • robinvan
    robinvan Member Posts: 1,012
    #7
    RFA Rocks!!
    I had RFA to treat a liver met in Mar 2007. This after 2/3 liver resection in 2004. No liver problems since the RFA.

    My RFA procedure was done via "open surgery" so the recovery time was a little longer. I think the surgeon did 3 or 4 "deployments" of the probe to zap all of the tumour.

    As good as, or better than, surgery in the right circumstances... from my perspective.

    I hope it works out for him

    Rob; in Vancouver
  • slamb58
    slamb58 Member Posts: 31
    #8
    RFA at Stanford
    Devasted,
    I just had a RFA a couple of weeks ago, and doing great. I was hoping for a second liver resection but the lesion was to close to a main bile duct. Liver surgeon said the RFA was the next best thing, and said the outcomes have been great. Mine was not done as a open surgery. It was done at Stanford Hospital and I was in the hospital overnight. I had a liver resection in 2008 and I have to say this was definitely easier. Now I will finish up three more cycles of chemo.

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