Radiofrequency Ablation and Cryoablation in Treating Painful Bone Metastasis: A Comprehensive Systematic Review and Separate Single-Arm Meta-analysis.

On separate analyses, CA appeared to produce larger short-term effect sizes (greater early pain reduction) while RFA had larger medium/long-term effect sizes in the available studies. Because direct comparative data are sparse and heterogeneous, these observations do not establish superiority of one modality over the other. Both techniques demonstrated favorable safety profiles across included studies. Ablation combined with external beam radiation therapy (EBRT) was superior to either modality alone. Standardized measures and more comparative studies are needed to guide treatment.