At Shefaa, our interventional radiologists offer a range of minimally invasive techniques to treat benign and malignant tumors. Radiofrequency ablation (RFA) is one of those techniques, where a needle inserted through the skin is used to deliver thermal energy generated by radiofrequencies to kill tumor cells. The insertion process is guided by ultrasound or CT imaging. RFA is useful in the treatment of primary and secondary liver and lung cancer in addition to kidney cancers.
Another thermal ablation technique offered at Shefaa is microwave ablation (MWA).
In this method, an alternating electromagnetic field generates heat as it interacts with the water and ions of target tissues. Ultrasound and CT imaging can be used for guidance. MWA is useful in the treatment of primary and secondary liver tumors.

Shefaa also offers trans-arterial chemoembolization (TACE) as a minimally invasive procedure, which combines both chemotherapy and embolization to treat liver cancer.
In this technique, an anti-cancer drug is injected directly through a catheter into the artery supplying a liver cancer. Then an embolic agent is injected to plug up the same artery with the chemotherapeutic drug in the tumor.
A fourth minimally invasive technique available at Shefaa is trans-arterial radioembolization (TARE) or radioembolization (RE) for short, where a catheter injects radioactive microspheres into the tumor through the arteries supplying it with blood.
These small beads emit therapeutic amount of radiation to directly affect the tumor, thus minimizing the damage to adjacent tissues.