Research shows promise for microwave ablation to relieve painful bone and soft-tissue tumors

April 11, 2013, Fort Lauderdale, Fla. -- First-of-its-kind research presented today showed microwave ablation (MWA) therapy cut pain in half for patients with painful bone and soft-tissue tumors and took less time to complete than radiofrequency ablation. Pain relief lasted over 4 months on average and up to 15 months in some patients, according to results reported at the 29th Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Pain Medicine.

Approximately 10,600 new cases of soft-tissue sarcoma and 2,570 new cases of bone sarcoma were diagnosed in the United States in 2009, according to statistics published through the American Cancer Society. Managing the often-significant pain related to the tumors can be difficult. MWA is a relatively new therapy that has been applied to the management of various tumors, including those located in the liver, adrenal gland, thyroid and kidney, but had not yet been described for this indication, the study authors said.