A successful treatment of percutaneous radio frequency ablation for advanced thyroid cancer

Abstract The patient was a 69-year-old woman. She received chemotherapy and radiation for thyroid tumor (undifferentiated cancer) following an operation in 1998. The chemotherapy was regularly repeated for relapse. The tumor increased gradually and came to cause dysphagia. She initially rejected nutritional management that depends on intravenous hyper alimentation or gastrostomy. After receiving an informed consent, we performed percutaneous radio frequency ablation (RFA) for the tumor using a Cool-tip needle on April 2, 2003. The algorithm of RFA was 9 min: 30 --> 120 W, 12 min: 50 --> 110 W, 9 min: 50 --> 100 W. After 2 days, the covered stent was implanted in the esophagus and an oral intake was started. Although the operation for undifferentiated thyroid cancer is controversial, we performed RFA and esophageal stenting for improving of QOL. This is the first case report in Japan.