The Karolinska Institute-sponsored, prospective, observational MAVERRIC study aims to demonstrate that a strategy of first line local microwave ablation of colorectal liver metastases is not inferior to liver resection in terms of survival rates at three years.
Jacob Freedman, principal investigator of the study told Interventional News: "The lack of data that compare local ablative treatment with resection for liver metastases prompted us to undertake this study. Ablative treatment has, for many years, been used as an adjunct to resection and as an alternative when major surgery is contraindicated because of comorbid conditions. It has been shown that ablative treatment is easier for the patient, resulting in far fewer complications and a much shorter length of hospital stay, but whether survival, the most important variable, is on par with surgery has not been sown despite a decade of specualtion.
The full article can be viewed on interventionalnews.com.au