There is no established liver tumour model in pigs to study the efficacy of ablative treatment options available for the treatment of liver tumours by physical agents. A tumour-mimic model visible with high contrast on sonograms and on gross pathology has been studied at mid-term on 20 pigs. The aim was to determine if these tumour-mimics are well tolerated and can be used to validate the use of thermal therapies at a preclinical stage. The dimensions of the tumour-mimics measured on sonograms were reproducible (diameter: 9.6 +/- 1.9 mm) and correlated with those performed in gross pathology (R(2)=0.73). The accuracy of focused ultrasound thermal therapy can be evaluated preclinically using these tumour-mimics.