Ablative technologies for renal cancer

Nearly two-thirds of newly detected renal masses are clinical stage 1, with T1a tumours accounting for 60% of the newly detected stage 1 tumours. Guideline panels convened by the American Urological Association and the European Association of Urology recommend nephron-sparing surgery as the gold standard treatment for small renal masses, with active surveillance and thermal ablation recommended as alternative strategies in select patients. However, there is a dearth of studies directly comparing outcomes for energy-based ablation to those for traditional surgical treatments for small renal masses, and future prospective randomized trials will be invaluable in this regard. Ongoing research in renal tumour ablation targets several areas, including but not limited to achieving larger ablation sizes, decreasing morbidity, and development of novel technologies for renal tumour ablation.