Thermal ablation for early-stage breast cancer: cryoablation, microwave ablation, radiofrequency ablation, high-intensity focused ultrasound ablation, and laser ablation — a systematic review
Judit Erdos, Julia Kern, Doris Giess, Andras Drozgyik, Gregor Goetz · 2026
Read Thermal ablation for early-stage breast cancer: cryoablation, microwave ablation, radiofrequency ablation, high-intensity focused ultrasound ablation, and laser ablation — a systematic review by Judit Erdos, Julia Kern, Doris Giess, Andras Drozgyik, Gregor Goetz (2026) in the Tower of Babel, a free online library of public-domain works preserved in clean, searchable text. No sign-up. The full text is served as a plain-text file at a predictable URL, where text is present: https://antarctic-labs.com/tower-of-babel/PMC13312544.txt.
Description
Judit Erdos and colleagues present a 2026 systematic review of thermal ablation as a gentler alternative to surgery for early-stage breast cancer. Five heat- or cold-based techniques promise to destroy small tumors through the skin, cutting treatment burden, but their safety and cancer control needed a consolidated look across all of them.
Searching four databases for studies from 2014 onward under PRISMA rules, the team included 22 trials. Twelve used cryoablation, five microwave ablation, three radiofrequency ablation, two focused ultrasound, and one laser ablation. Recurrence rates were generally low, survival high, and side effects mostly mild to moderate. Still, most studies were small, followed patients briefly, and often removed the tumor surgically afterward, muddying credit. The authors rate the certainty of evidence from very low to moderate depending on technique.
Catalog record
| CREATOR | Judit Erdos, Julia Kern, Doris Giess, Andras Drozgyik, Gregor Goetz |
|---|---|
| YEAR | 2026 |
| COLLECTION | PAPERS |
| FORMAT | TXT |
| FILE SIZE | 52085 |
| LICENSE | https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 |
| RIGHTS | CC BY |
| SOURCE | Europe PMC |