Abstract:

Thermal ablations are rapidly developing techniques for minimally invasive treatment, including laser ablation, radiofrequency ablation, and microwave ablation. Such remarkable success has been achieved in treatment malignant neoplasms, for instance, hepatocellular carcinoma and renal cell adenocarcinoma. In recent years, the practice has been gradually adopted into the treatment of papillary thyroid microcarcinoma (PTMC). Many reports have stated that thermal ablations have distinctive advantages over traditional thyroidectomy owing to its efficacy and safety for treatment primary PTMC, meanwhile there are many controversial issues which hotly debated regarding to first-line treatments. Recently, indications and contraindications of thermal ablation for PTMC have been successively proposed by guidelines and consensuses. Many follow-up reports related to thermal ablation in the treatment of PTMC have been reported in clinical practice as well. In this review, we summarized the principles, indications and contraindications, and the efficacy and safety of thermal ablation in the treatment of PTMC, and compared it with traditional surgery.

Key words: Thyroid cancer, Papillary thyroid microcarcinoma, Thermal ablation, Imaging