Microwave Ablation Versus Resection for Resectable Colorectal Liver Metastases

This study aims to prove that a strategy of first line local ablation of colorectal liver metastases with microwaves is not inferior to liver resections in terms of survival rates at three years with secondary endpoints being survival at five and ten years, interventional complication rates, length of stay, ablation precision measurements, need for further interventions and health-economic analysis.
A cohort of 100 patients treated with CT guided microwave ablation of 1-5 metastases <31mm in size will be followed and compared with propensity scored matched controls from the Swedish liver surgery registry - Sweliv.
The study is a multi-institutional effort by the Hepato Pancreatico Biliary (HPB) units in Stockholm Sweden, Bern Switzerland and Groningen in the Netherlands.