Bland Lipiodol-Assisted Thermal Ablation of Renal Cell Carcinoma

Surgical resection of renal cell carcinoma (RCC) remains the standard of care given the excellent reported outcomes for early stage disease, with 5-year cancer-specific survival (CSS) rates of 97% for pT1a and 87% for pT1b tumors after nephrectomy. Outcomes after partial nephrectomy are equally encouraging, with 5- and 10-year CSS rates of 92% and 80%, respectively, across all stages and 96% and 90%, respectively, for tumors less than 4 cm. Transarterial embolization prior to thermal ablation for RCC is far less frequent, but it is described in the literature. To date, there are no randomized controlled studies that demonstrate a benefit of combined therapy over radiofrequency ablation (RFA) or cryoablation alone. However, lipiodol is profoundly radiopaque, and utilization prior to RFA or cryoablation may aid in the visualization of the tumor.