Post radiofrequency ablation assessment of colorectal cancer liver metastases—does post ablation biopsy really matter?

Colorectal cancer is the third most common malignancy in the United States among both men and women and second leading cause of cancer death in the United States. There are about 135,000 estimated new cases of colorectal cancer in 2016 and about 50,000 deaths, however death rates have fallen by about 2.7% each year over the past 10 years (1). In fact, nearly 50% of patients with colorectal cancer develop hepatic metastases at some point during the course of their disease. Patients with untreated colorectal cancer liver metastases (CLM) have a median survival time of approximately 5 months with poor 5-year survival rates. Hepatic resection is the first choice treatment for the resectable cases and results in long-term survival for approximately 40% of patients. The perioperative mortality of hepatectomy is now less than 5%.