First experience of radiofrequency ablation of breast cancer metastases in the vertebra followed by vertebroplasty. A case from practice

Background. Breast cancer is the prevailing malignancy form among the female population. According to the WHO statistics, up to 100 cases of this disease are diagnosed annually per 100 thousand women aged 13 to 90 years. The skeletal system lesions occur in 13.6 % of patients affected by this type of malignancy, while solitary lesions of the skeletal system – in 41 % of those ones. Purpose – іntroducing the treatment of skeletal system metastasis by means of radiofrequency ablation to the medical community. Materials and methods. The paper deals with the case history of a 64-year-old patient B., who underwent treatment at Cancer Surgery Department of State Organization “Grigoriev Institute for Medical Radiology and Oncology of the NAMS of Ukraine”. Results. Performing radiofrequency (RF) ablation of the L2 vertebra mass followed by vertebroplasty of the affected vertebral area. Conclusions. RF ablation is a minimally traumatic and at the same time highly effective method of treating single cancer metastases. Hydrodissection and local thermometry make it possible to avoid damaging the vital anatomical structures, and in combination with vertebroplasty they aid in treating bone metastases without the risk of pathological fracture.