Radiofrequency ablation (RFA) has been most effective when the tumors are small, exophytic, and away from vital structures. We enlarged the size of the ablation kill zone by infusing a 30-nm tumor necrosis factor–⍺ and polyethylene glycol–coated gold nanoparticle (CYT-6091, CytImmune Sciences, Inc.) before ablation in a rabbit kidney tumor model.

A total of 37 New Zealand White rabbits had VX-2 tumors implanted into their bilateral kidneys; they were then split into 3 treatment groups of 10 rabbits each and a sham group of 7 rabbits as follows: (1) CYT-6091 only, (2) RFA only, (3) CYT-6091 followed 4 hours later by RFA. Gross and microscopic measurements of the ablation size as well as histologic analysis using hematoxylin and eosin staining were performed to determine the effect of CYT-6091 on the ablation.

The RFA + CYT-6091 group had a larger zone of complete cell death than the RFA-only group when measured on microscopic examination (0.30 ± 0.07 vs 0.23 ± 0.03 mL, P = .03). The zone of partially ablated tissue was smaller in the RFA + CYT-6091 group than in the RFA-only group (0.08 ± 0.02 vs 0.13 ± 0.05 mL, P = .01).

We have demonstrated the efficacy of CYT-6091 in enhancing RFA in a translational kidney tumor model. The potential usage of CYT-6091 to improve RFA of renal cell carcinoma merits further study.