Introduction

Interventional oncology (IO) has emerged as a major subspecialty in the medical and surgical treatment of patients with cancer. As a discipline it encompasses the diagnosis, treatment, and follow-up of patients with a wide range of cancers involving but not limited to the liver, kidneys, prostate, lungs, and breast. Specific procedures include biopsy, thermal and chemical ablation, transcatheter techniques such as chemoembolization and radioembolization, and high-intensity focused ultrasound. At the highest level of practice it involves a team of subspecialists who can provide the full spectrum of treatment options; at a minimum it requires a medical practitioner who is skilled in at least one of the treatment techniques and is dedicated to the evaluation, treatment, and follow-up of patients. Interventional oncology should not be practiced as a single-encounter event, wherein the only role of the IO physician is the performance of an interventional procedure; it is a discipline that requires the practitioner to become an actively engaged member of the patient's healthcare team. Over the last 10–15 years there have been many changes and improvements in the treatment of patients with all types of cancer. Chemotherapy, surgery, and radiation therapy have made significant strides in the treatment of disease that, in the past, was thought to be untreatable. In this chapter we will specifically discuss how to set up a radiofrequency ablation (RFA) service, and how to integrate it with the multidisciplinary practice of cancer treatment.