2450 MHz Microwave Ablation for Liver Metastases Under 3.0T Wide-bore Magnetic Resonance Guidance: a Pilot Study

Abstract

Purpose: To investigate the feasibility and effectiveness of 3.0T wide-bore magnetic resonance (MR)-guided microwave ablation (MA) for liver metastases (LM).Patients and methods: From October 2018 to May 2020, 39 patients with 63 LM were treated with 3.0T wide-bore MR-guided 2450 MHz MA therapy. The procedure parameters, technical success, complications, biochemical indexes changes, local tumor response, local tumor progression (LTP) and overall survival were recorded and analyzed.Results: The mean tumor maximum diameter and total procedure time were 3.0 cm and 55.2 min, respectively. Technical success was 100% but 5 cases (12.8%) with grade-1 complications. Alanine transaminase, aspartate transaminase and total bilirubin showed slight a transient increase on day 3 (P<0.05) and returned to normal by day 30 (P>0.05). The complete ablation rate for ≦ 2.5 and >2.5 cm lesions were 100 % and 92.5 %, respectively, during the median followup of 12.0 months, LTP rate was 4.8 % (3/63), and the 6-, 12- and 18-month overall survival were 100%, 92.2%, 76.4% , respectively.Conclusion: 3.0T wide-bore MR-guided MA for LM is a safe and effective approach, especially for small LM.