With the advanced imaging technology, many minimally invasive treatments have been developed and widely used as alternatives to conventional tumor ablations [4,14,16,34,35].

Complications were few and relatively minor, consisting mostly of skin burns in patients with superficial lesions. No data are currently available on the long-term effects or outcomes of these patients,44 but both RF ablation and cryoablation have been used either as a primary treatment or to ablate surgical margins following lumpectomy.45 Cryoblation is the only ablation modality approved by the Food and Drug Administration for the treatment of breast fibroadenomas and can be done as an office-based outpatient procedure.

Electroporation has been used to deliver genes that signal the immune system against tumors [4] or deliver drugs such as bleomycin to destroy tumors [5–7]. Other methods use purely physical methods to induce necrosis such as irreversible electroporation [8], cryotherapy, radiofrequency ablation [9]. A new technology using pulse power has emerged from aerospace and military applications into biology and medicine by applying non-ionizing, intense nanosecond pulsed electric fields (nsPEFs)1 as a means to eliminate cancer [10–13].

Cryo therapy was introduced and popularized as a treatment for cervical intraepithelial neoplasia, but this therapy has presently been replaced with loop electrosurgical excision procedure procedures. Additionally, this technique has been used in other nongynecologic conditions to treat nonresectable tumors including prostate and breast cancer, hepatocellular carcinoma, and renal cell carcinoma.23-27 Tissues cooled to temperatures –20°C or less are destroyed as a result of intracellular ice formation, extracellular crystallization of interstitial water followed by lethal cell dehydration, thrombosis of small blood vessels, or mechanical damage to the cellular integrity by expansion of ice crystals.28-30