US-guided ablation of tumors – where is it used and how did we get there

Ablation under ultrasound (US) guidance for the treatment of various tumors in liver, thyroid, prostate, kidney, uterine and many other organs evolved extensively in the past decades. Major ablative techniques, including radiofrequency ablation, microwave ablation, high intensity focused ultrasound, cryoablation, percutaneous ethanol injection, laser ablation and irreversible electroporation, have all been widely applied and ablation is recommended by several guidelines as first-line or alternative therapy e.g. hepatocellular carcinoma in early stage, T1a stage renal cell carcinoma and thyroid nodules. In the current article, we reviewed 2508 articles on tumor ablation under US guidance and present the status of US-guided tumor ablation globally.