No-touch RFA Versus Traditional RFA for Small Hepatocellular Carcinoma

Traditional RFA treatment has been a curable therapy for small hepatocellular carcinoma (diameter≤3cm). This technique ablates the tumor via radio frequency by inserting an electrode needle directly into the tumor. This clearly violates no-touch technique based on the principle of surgical oncology. Thus the 1-year recurrence rate of the cancer is up to 30% after the treatment, and the 3-year tumor-free survival rate is only 20% - 40%. No-touch RFA treatment avoids the direct contact with the tumor that can cause the spread of cancer cells in the liver, or the Antrim spread, Therefore it has been suggested that no-touch RFA treatment reduce the recurrence rate after operation in comparison with the traditional RFA treatment. This research project aims at using the prospective randomized comparative method to compare the short-term and the long-term curative effects between no-touch RFA and traditional RFA treatments for small hepatic carcinoma.