To know the limit of tumor staging for RFA attempted as “curative” treatment.

To know the limit of tumor staging for RFA attempted as “palliative” or “down staging” treatment.

Up to 2 cm diameter RFA allows complète ablation of almost ail malignant liver tumors.

Up to 5 cm diameter, on condition to use proper technology (ei: multipolar), RFA is able to achieve local tumor control similar to partial liver resection.

For intermediate tumor stages (T2-T3 in TNM) RFA has the right profile of an effective palliative or down staging treatment.

Up to 5 cm of tumor diameter, RFA has far from partial liver resection the higher feasibility and lower complication rates. Up to 2 cm almost ail tumors can be completely destroy by RFA even using routine monopolar technology. Therefore, for such very small tumor RFA should be regarded as first line therapeutic option. On condition to improve tissue destruction capacity of RFA (ei: multipolar mode), same results can be obtained in patient with médium size tumor. In patients with few tumors (= 3) even including large one (= 5 cm), RFA stills provide obvious antitumorous effect without significant increase of complications. RFA should be regarded consequently as an effective palliative option in patients with intermediate stage of disease.