SynthesisCardiovascular and interventional radiology2018
Radiofrequency and Microwave Ablation Compared to Systemic Chemotherapy and to Partial Hepatectomy in the Treatment of Colorectal Liver Metastases: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.
Synthesis in Cardiovascular and interventional radiology, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 104 papers, 7 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
104 citing papers in PubMed, 7 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 196 citations in OpenAlex.
- Radiofrequency ablation versus surgical resection in colorectal liver metastasis: insight from an umbrella review.Frontiers in oncology · 2025Pooled it
- Microwave coagulation for liver metastases.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2024Pooled it
- Comparative efficacy of microwave ablation and radiofrequency ablation for treating metastatic liver cancer: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Frontiers in oncology · 2024Pooled it
- Microwave Ablation, Radiofrequency Ablation, Irreversible Electroporation, and Stereotactic Ablative Body Radiotherapy for Intermediate Size (3-5 cm) Unresectable Colorectal Liver Metastases: a Systematic Review and Meta-analysis.Current oncology reports · 2022Pooled it
- Electrocoagulation for liver metastases.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2021Pooled it
- Clinical effectiveness of Enneking appropriate versus Enneking inappropriate procedure in patients with primary osteosarcoma of the spine: a systematic review with meta-analysis.European spine journal : official publication of the European Spine Society, the European Spinal Deformity Society, and the European Section of the Cervical Spine Research Society · 2020Pooled it
- Liver microwave ablation: a systematic review of various FDA-approved systems.European radiology · 2019Pooled it
- Microwave versus radiofrequency ablation for the treatment of liver malignancies: a randomized controlled phase 2 trial.Scientific reports · 2022Trial
- F-18 FDG perfusion PET: intraprocedural assessment of the liver tumor ablation margin.Abdominal radiology (New York) · 2021Trial
- Colorectal liver metastases: surgery versus thermal ablation (COLLISION) - a phase III single-blind prospective randomized controlled trial.BMC cancer · 2018Trial
- Results from the Pan-European CIEMAR study: Local Tumour Control After Microwave Ablation of Colorectal Liver Metastases and Exploratory Associations with Ablation Margins and Confirmation Software.Cardiovascular and interventional radiology · 2026Article
- Radiofrequency ablation combined with systemic therapy versus systemic therapy alone for unresectable colorectal liver metastases: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Annals of medicine and surgery (2012) · 2026Article
- Thermal Ablation for Colorectal Liver Metastases: Current Evidence and Future Horizons.Diagnostics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Review
- The State of the Art on Management of Patients with Unresectable Liver Metastases from Colorectal Cancer.Biomedicines · 2026Review
- Image-guided activation of drugs with electromagnetic radiation.Nature chemical biology · 2026Review
- Meta-Analysis: The Holy Grail?Cardiovascular and interventional radiology · 2026Review
- Exploring the Upper Limit: The Added Value of Local Treatment in Patients with Multiple Colorectal Liver Metastases: An Amsterdam Colorectal Liver Met Registry (AmCORE)-Based Study.Cardiovascular and interventional radiology · 2026Article
- Intratumoural Contrast Tagging During CT-Hepatic Arteriography-Guided Microwave Ablation of Colorectal Liver Metastases (t-CTHA) to Enhance Tumour Targeting and Margin Assessment.Cardiovascular and interventional radiology · 2026Article
- Safety and Efficacy of High Power (> 100W) Microwave Ablation Using the EMPRINT™ HP System: Final Results of a Post-Market Clinical Follow-Up Study.Cardiovascular and interventional radiology · 2026Article
- Conversion-intent definitive liver-directed therapy improves survival in liver-predominant metastatic colorectal cancer.American journal of cancer research · 2026Article
44 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
12 authors at 5 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
purposeTo assess safety and outcome of radiofrequency ablation (RFA) and microwave ablation (MWA) as compared to systemic chemotherapy and partial hepatectomy (PH) in the treatment of colorectal liver metastases (CRLM).
methodsMEDLINE, Embase and the Cochrane Library were searched. Randomized trials and comparative observational studies with multivariate analysis and/or matching were included. Guidelines from National Guideline Clearinghouse and Guidelines International Network were assessed using the AGREE II instrument.
resultsThe search revealed 3530 records; 328 were selected for full-text review; 48 were included: 8 systematic reviews, 2 randomized studies, 26 comparative observational studies, 2 guideline-articles and 10 case series; in addition 13 guidelines were evaluated. Literature to assess the effectiveness of ablation was limited. RFA + systemic chemotherapy was superior to chemotherapy alone. PH was superior to RFA alone but not to RFA + PH or to MWA. Compared to PH, RFA showed fewer complications, MWA did not. Outcomes were subject to residual confounding since ablation was only employed for unresectable disease.
conclusionThe results from the EORTC-CLOCC trial, the comparable survival for ablation + PH versus PH alone, the potential to induce long-term disease control and the low complication rate argue in favour of ablation over chemotherapy alone. Further randomized comparisons of ablation to current-day chemotherapy alone should therefore be considered unethical. Hence, the highest achievable level of evidence for unresectable CRLM seems reached. The apparent selection bias from previous studies and the superior safety profile mandate the setup of randomized controlled trials comparing ablation to surgery.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the Socratic graph.