Many tumors on the kidney can be removed without conventional surgery, according to a new study.
Doctors at the Massachusetts General Hospital have been testing a new technique called radiofrequency ablation (RFA) for its ability to remove tumors on the kidney. RFA uses a heated wire to remove the tumor, and is far less invasive than the usual surgical method.

The team describes the outcomes for 34 patients treated with RFA for renal cell carcinoma, the most common form of kidney cancer. They treated 42 individual tumors, ranging in size from one to nine centimeters in diameter. All the tumors on the surface of the kidney were completely destroyed by RFA, and more than half of those on the kidney interior were removed.

Four patients died over the follow up period, of unrelated causes. Those who survived had no recurrence of their tumor and those with limited kidney function did not need dialysis treatment. So RFA looks very promising for people with kidney cancer and, if larger scale trials prove successful, it could become the treatment of choice in the future.