Interventional oncology

Interventional Oncology is a relatively new term that has been used to describe the practice of minimally invasive percutaneous cancer treatment. It has been used for palliative and adjuvant treatments to improve quality of life for some forty years. Curative interventions or interventions which extend life significantly, require ablative techniques i.e. techniques that destroy tumour mass either completely or sufficiently to reduce the tumour load. This review describes the state of the art in liver and renal ablation and liver chemotherapy and isotope embolisation. Such ablative techniques are increasingly being used in other cancer treatments such as the lung, prostate and perhaps in future the breast.