Percutaneous Renal Cryoablation: Local Control at Mean 26 Months of Followup

Purpose: We retrospectively determined the efficacy of percutaneous renal cryoablation based on a mean followup of more than 2 years. Materials and Methods: Institutional review board approval was obtained for this Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act compliant retrospective study. Informed consent was waived. From March 2003 through March 2007, 91 patients with 93 tumors underwent 92 percutaneous cryoablation procedures. Technical success was defined as extension of the ice ball beyond the tumor margin and post-ablation images showing no contrast enhancement in the area encompassing the original tumor within 3 months of the procedure. Local tumor progression was defined as new enhancement in the ablated tumor or an increase in ablated tumor size beyond 3 months after the procedure. Complications were defined using the National Cancer Institute Common Terminology Criteria for Adverse Events v3.0. Results: Mean followup was 26 months (range 5 to 61, SD +/- 13) and mean tumor size was 3.4 cm (range 1.5 to 7.3, SD +/- 1.2). Major complications occurred in 6 of 91 patients (7%) or after 8 of 92 (9%) procedures. Technically successful ablation was performed in the treatment of 89 of the 93 (96%) tumors or 87 of the 91 patients (96%). Of the 83 tumors with followup longer than 3 months only a single case (1%) of local tumor progression occurred. Overall local control was achieved in 86 of 91 (95%) patients or 88 of 93 (95%) tumors. Conclusions: Midterm followup of percutaneous renal cryoablation shows durability of this treatment method with a low incidence of tumor recurrence beyond 3 months.